Anhinga? No. Turkey Vulture
This past weekend I was surprised to see a turkey vulture acting more then a little bit odd. I’m not at all sure what this one was up to, but it definitely was behaving in a strange manner.
Vultures don’t normally fly low over the water. Vultures don’t normally land on a stump in the salt marsh. Vultures don’t normally hold their wings out Anhinga style.
The Anhinga is a water bird that needs to dry off it’s wings after it is done swimming around under water after fish. The Vulture does not go after fish or go into the water. It’s possible this Vulture was simply trying to warm itself up in the sun, but I don’t ever remember seeing one do this before.
I have also included a photo of mine from the files showing the classic Anhinga ‘wing drying’ pose for reference.
Phil Lanoue Photography 
Cool shots. It’s the first time I see a vulture in that environment.
Thanks it was a first for me as well.
Here in Florida we do see turkey vultures in watery areas…not wading or anything..but flying around the glades near areas where water birds are. I have seen them standing on rocks with their wings spread as you show as well. Birds take on wing spread postures facing the sun for other things besides drying…like thermoregulation and heating up bugs and parasites so they will jump around and the bird can pluck them out easier.
I am particularly fond of turkey vultures and marvel a bit that they have such a scary looking bill and yet have such warm and friendly looking eyes…kind of hazel in color. Here in Florida the commonest two are the turkey vulture and the black vulture, both of which are interesting and have a personality of their own.
Judy . That was interesting. I live in Florida too, but have never known that or seen the vultures doing that. I learned something new here.
One area I do recall seeing the turkey vultures standing on rocks with the wing spread posture facing the sun was out at Fakahatchee Strand. Before I started researching why herons do that, I thought it was just to dry feathers but there are a variety of reasons it seems. That area around Tamiami Trail, Big Cypress Preserve, and Fakahatchee have a good display of the turkey vultures and black vultures even more so. I like watching for those striking red bills.
We had a few that day who were acting particularly peculiar and of course having vultures circling very low over your head makes you wonder if they know something that you don’t. 😉
I don’t normally see vultures land out in the salt marsh and just hang out for a while and then spread their wings like that. It of course was not drying off because it wasn’t wet. Quite likely thermoregulating as you suggest and as I suspect this GBH is doing while in the classic ‘flashing’ pose:
https://phillanoue.com/2013/11/16/active-day/active-day-04/
Vultures are actually very clean birds despite their preferred diet and I find them to be quite interesting as well.
Interesting observations, Phil. And nice photos. I generally don’t like to look at turkey vultures, but if I don’t look at his head, I must say his feathers look quite beautiful!
The turkey vulture reminds me a bit of the wood stork in that sense Deb. The face is not much to look at up close but they can be elegant birds in their own way.
Scatti fantastici caro Phil. L’avvoltoio tacchino io proprio non lo conoscevo, è la prima volta che lo vedo. Grazie 🙂
Ciao, Pat
Sono felice si poteva vedere questo uccello per la prima volta. La ringrazio molto!
The turkey vulture is kind of…creepy looking! Maybe since its name includes turkey, he was protesting for all of his lost kind this past Thursday? Fantastic shots!
Well the face is nothing you really want to look at closely that’s for sure. And yes indeed, perhaps he was putting on a bit of a protest for what takes place on Thanksgiving.
I have seen them do this at Brookgreen. Nice capture!
Thanks much for checking this out.
They are remarkably similar, and that is very interesting. Odd that one showed up there, from what you said. Kind of like how those wild turkeys were walking down our street. Strange! I like that photo of the TV, as he has his own kind of beauty.
The pose was similar for sure but the reason for doing it has to be very different. The anhinga just got out of the water an the vultures don’t go into water. We had a few that day who were acting particularly peculiar and of course having vultures circling very low over your head makes you wonder if they know something that you don’t. 😉
Maybe he saw that pose in a movie and was acting it out.
If the birds ever get together with the alligators and start acting out movie scenes we could all be in trouble.
I hope the gators never saw the movie Jaws and the birds didn’t see…well… “The Birds” 🙂
I was going to say much of what Judy said. I have seen that posture up here as well and have seen them in the marsh. I never did see one in the water though. In fact, I have seen them in the most unlikely places too. They get around. Judy noted them thermoregulating and what was new to me, the “heating up the bugs”. Nice photo or your vulture. That is one bird I could shoot easily. They are not that afraid of people and they even show up in the middle of town.
I have never seen vultures go into water and don’t often see them around water. We had a few that day who were acting particularly peculiar and of course having vultures circling very low over your head makes you wonder if they know something that you don’t. 😉
As far as the termoregulating goes…that is a common enough sight and explanation for why a GBH will go into the classic ‘flashing’ pose such as seen here:
https://phillanoue.com/2013/11/16/active-day/active-day-04/
I mostly see vultures on the side of the highway picking on a dead thing, but they are actually very clean birds.
Both great shots! I never thought about them doing the same thing. We do have turkey vultures spreading their wings like that occasionally.
We had a few that day who were acting particularly peculiar and of course having vultures circling very low over your head makes you wonder if they know something that you don’t. 😉
Such a striking bird. Judy’s explanation (above) fits with what I have learned about cormorants, who do this regularly. I learn so much from you, Phil, thank you!
Well the reason why a vulture might spread it’s wings out is very different from why a cormorant or anhinga does it. They are water birds and do it to dry their wings. Vultures don’t go into water, but they could indeed be thermoregulating such as this GBH in the classic ‘flashing’ pose seen here:
https://phillanoue.com/2013/11/16/active-day/active-day-04/
Thanks very much for checking these out Maggie and I’m happy you are picking some fun info on the birds. 🙂
Now there’s the beginnings of a children’s story, Phil. The turkey vulture who wanted to be an anhinga. 😀
Great shots, both of them.
I’ll have to really work on that book idea Sylvia, there has to be a good story in there somewhere. 🙂
That turkey vulture is acting odd. They’re such ugly birds, but that one has a beautiful grace about it. You captured an unique pose.
There were several acting more then a little odd that day. I did not like when 4 or 5 of them were circling low over my head. Do they know something I don’t know?!? 😯
Anhinga wanna-be? (oops, Sylvia beat me to the punchline.)
If I ever see a vulture dive down under the water to grab a fish I’ll know he has been watching the anhinga. 😀
😀
Looks creepy indeed, beautiful shots Phil.
He is a bit creepy indeed Jan and I wonder what he is up to?!
I have a number of photos of Great Blue Herons and Yellow Crowned Night Herons facing the sun with their wings twisted out. One suggestion I heard is that they are trying to get rid of mites. Perhaps that is what the turkey vulture was doing.
On the other hand I could go for the thermoregulation argument. I looked back through my vulture photos and found one from last Dec 30 with a whole bunch of black vultures hanging around in the sun with their wings out.
I suppose it could be either or both. We just had a group of 5 or 6 out there that day that were all acting a bit peculiar.
I get nervous when several vultures decide to circle low right over my head. Could they know something I don’t know?!? 🙂
Vultures can be found near water for bathing. And if there’s a leftover fish they’ll take the opportunity to eat it. Both vultures and cormorants in these photos are winning themselves to soak up a little vitamin D, warm themselves and most importantly kill bacteria with the aid of the sun’s Ultra Violet rays. Nice photos love that you’re aware and capturing cool behavior
Thank you for sharing