Laura Erickson's For the Birds

Ethereally lovely in flight, the Turkey Vulture is designed for practical life as a scavenger, the bald head easy to clean off if it gets gooped up after the bird feasts on putrescent meat. They can find carcasses in forested as well as open areas because they can detect them by smell as well as noticing them visually. They also pay attention to where other vultures are circling to find carcasses.

Young Turkey Vultures have a grayish head through their first winter until spring.