Foxfeather Zenkova

Generally no, only a few species of vulture will (rarely) hunt, like cinereous vultures knocking wild sheep off mountainsides. Most likely another predator (everything wants a duckling snack) is taking them and the vultures are aware or checking something else out. They will follow predators

A young king vulture flying towards the viewer, wings outstretched and feet splayed

Please enjoy the intense, glorious nobility of a baby vulture learning to fly 🪶

It is very hard! I try to spend a lot of paperwork and downtime with them, they're so much fun :)

A close up of a young German shepherd, her nose distorted to be extra large because of the camera angle

Xena is a very serious dog.

Gosh, they grow up so fast!!

#gshep #judgeydogs

Baby bath pants! 🪶
Yolo the king vulture, testing out the hose spray for a shower. 🚿 He wasn't quite sure about it at first, but decided he likes it!

Great question! He will start coloring up between 1-2 years and take 5-6 years to get the full adult rock star coloration!

A young king vulture with his wings spread upwards, standing on top of a turf covered ramp.

A young king vulture standing atop a turf-covered ramp

Brave boy!
Yolo the baby king vulture is very curious and has been enjoying exploring our ambassador building and aviaries. He's just started to fly, but using ramps is a lot of fun too. 🪶

Valuable and vulnerable are good ones, but I would have gone with others like Vibrant (king vultures, white-headed, yellow-headed rock stars!), Vital for ecosystem health, or Vast? V's can be hard but there are lots of great vulture qualities to share :)

Male and female bearded reedings sitting on branches in front of reedy green grass

The cutest tiny rounds!

(Okolo and Cirka, bearded reedlings).
🪶

An adult turkey vulture on the ground next to a tree, one wing hanging slightly

Wild Tuvu Chase

The past few days we've been trying to rescue this downed vulture (broken wing). It's is in a large, heavily wooded/brushy area and manages to thoroughly disappear after we get alerted of a sighting. Hopefully trapping attempts will work!

Absolutely! That way there's no skidding or slipping so it can be a good experience for them :) Some of our birds are so eager they'll jump on the scale while we're still holding/moving it and we have to teach them to wait for a cue!

Baby king vulture!

A baby king vulture standing on a turf-covered digital scale platform

Our ambassador birds learn to step onto a scale so we can monitor their daily weights, as part of their health care.

Some more cautious birds can take considerable time to get comfortable with it, but some jump right up onto the scale the first time they're asked, like this little rock star! 🪶

Beautiful! I love love love seeing big groups of them, thank you for sharing :)

Yesss! That is referenced from Sev and it's so so perfect!

A close up of a baby king vulture, looking curiously at the camera. He is lying relaxed on a green turf.

Sweetest baby pterodactyl! 🪶

They do! Ravens, like other corvids, are great mimics and will pick up all sorts of noises and calls from their environments. They love to use the skill to troll other animals, too.

Our turkeys are always the peanut gallery, sharing their opinions on everything!

They absolutely do get accents over time, and come with them! Adult birds have a much harder time learning new 'language' and will never sound like babies who grew up with it - they often seem to have a really hard time learning new language as adults just like people, in my experience

Yami and Mokushi were taken from the wild (illegally) by people as babies, so they never learned to speak 'raven'. Like people, ravens learn their language during critical 'childhood' periods. Without raven parents, they learned to mimic what was around - people, and in this case, American crows. 🪶

A young king vulture standing with its wings outstretched in the sun

Big wings and baby fluffy!

#lovevultures 🪶

A young red-tailed hawk sitting atop a fence post, looking over green hay and corn fields

One of my favorite things about living rurally is getting to know all the local bird families. Every year the area red-tailed hawk pair fledges kids, and for a few weeks the youngsters hang around yelling constantly (despite having full crops) while the parents soar overhead.

A suspicious looking baby yak standing in front of a cream colored highland cow in a green field

Yaklets:
Attitude +++

Lesser yellow-headed vultures! They are native to central and south America, close cousins to turkey vultures.

Two yellow-headed vultures with their wings spread wide

Zoom!

Sev and Diva show off their giant wind sails. Despite being one of the smallest of vultures, yellow-headed vultures still have an impressive wingspan!
🪶

Lol! Perfect

There are definitely exceptions to this! (Some social species of raptors like Harris's hawks, burrowing owls, etc.) And Falcons (more closely related to parrots than other raptors) have a ton of personality! And individual differences too, of course. But on the whole vultures are A++

I am definitely biased because vultures are my favorite birds, but in general they are more social and gregarious than most other raptors, which is a lot more fun (to me) to work with. Many raptors tolerate human company to one degree or another vs vultures who can genuinely enjoy it

Cuteness overload: baby vulture edition!

Important? ✅️
Nature's cleaning crew? ✅️
Smart as heck? ✅️
Adorable? ✅️

#lovevultures 🪶

Absolutely agree!