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Two heads are better than one ??

Siamese phoenix?

I've seen turkey vultures with at least an 8 foot wingspread! Something's ripe there - as you well know

I hate those things....

I had a one-legged buzzard as a pet when I was a kid. Nasty fuggin' birds.....

When wounded/threatened one of their defense mechanisms is to vomit on the attacking animal. Found that out with a buddy as a kid. We were going fishing at a pond on his property and carrying a Marlin M60 .22 rifle. My friend saw several turkey vultures sitting around something in the field near the pond. Being a goofy kid he took a shot at one and hit it but not killing the thing. The bird started flopping around so we closed the distance, my friend was going to finish the bird with a headshot. Easier said than done, the thing was flopping around and so the rifleman got really close to make that perfect headshot. Suddenly the damned vulture squared up and stretched that neck and ugly head out retched some putrid liquid on my buds legs. He recoiled like he was the one shot, began gagging, dropped the rifle and sprinted for the pond where he dove headfirst into the water. Like the good friend I was, after recovering from the initial shock I was laughing so hard I could barely manage to finish it off with the .22. That is to say finished the vulture, not my friend... for clarity. Though at the immediate time I don't think my friend would have objected if it provided relief from the vulture puke. I don't shoot the things or go near them, but it's good info to know just in case.

They puke every chance they can.... He would get roadkill and fresh-shot meat. He would hobble like a wooden-legged pirate over to a cinder block with his dinner. He'd flop it up on the hot block and let it cook in the sun until it was putrid. Might take a day or too until it was rotten enuff to suit him. Then he'd woof it down. After a day in his gut, he'd puke it up on the cinder block and cook it some more. When he finally ate it that second time, it'd stay down... He was a hoot, tho. He'd ride my brothers shoulder like a parrot. Hang on with his good foot and use his stump, back and forth, for balance. He healed well before winter and wouldn't leave his cush new home for warmer climes. Froze to death one night that winter.....

Have ever considered writing children's novels?

Dad saw something across the creek bottom one day, sorta parked in the road. He got in his new truck to check out what it was (Dad was always curious about things) and drove over there (about 3/4 mile) and it was a buzzard on a roadkilled skunk. The buzzard took off after Dad got close and circled around and puked on his new truck, skunk puke at that.

Dad just rolled up the window and drove to the quarter car wash in town (about seven miles) and spend about $6 washing the puke off his new truck. Dad was not a fan of buzzards, but it made for a good story.

ugly fuggers...............

these guys are more eye appealing

AND they are just as good of scavenger as the buzzard, without the 'puke everywhere' trait

Funny ...

We've got plenty of them in Oregon....

Wildlife Images over here, has a bunch of them in an enclosure.. where they rehab injured animals
the Turkey vultures have on to themselves...


They have an high attrition rate on rehabing turkey vultures, they tell the public on the tour...

Raccoons keep finding ways into the enclosure... and they end up killing the turkey vultures and eat them...
they are easy prey when injured....

and some of you guys think raccoons are good for anything....

Was he the one that was hard of hearing on his left side? Or was that your three-legged armadillo?

They DO NOT taste like chicken

Back in grade school there was a big family living up a side road ... folks were a little rough around the edges. Grandma, 3 sisters, a pack their kids plus other cousins and stuff. Fathers ... sort of came and went. One of the sisters told the kids she'd cook anything they brought home. Got to be a contest to make her say "uncle." The kids thought they had her when they brought home a buzzard. They underestimated their foe. She cooked it .. then made them eat it.

I hiked into Marble Canyon a few years ago to fish (downstream from Lee's Ferry). There were a half dozen condors around. One took up residency on a large rock right above my little tent. His wing-span was probably 10 feet. The tracks looked like turkey tracks but almost twice as big. I'll bet some of those birds weighed 20 pounds or more. He would stand on his rock, about 12 feet off the ground, and stretch his wings out and just stand there for hours at a time. Pretty entertaining!

Flying thursday at about 3000' AGL and all of a sudden there were 3 or 4 turkey vultures right in the flight path. I thought it odd for them to be that high. They would sure ruin your day!