I was never particularly interested in the differences of features on Turkey Vulture faces until I took these photos that showed an awful lot of white looking stuff on one of the bird's faces, but not on the face of the other bird. I should have noticed this some years ago when I lived near a pig farm that used to throw 'leftovers' that drew a flock of Turkey Vultures all summer. They would fly right above me as I walked my dogs (and a cat) in some empty fields where they loafed and they sometimes hovered only 20 feet above (they acted like they were checking field marks for felidae, canid and hominid) providing very close views.
After finding little on internet about this I got out my faithful *Raptors of Western North America*--by golly Brian Wheeler states these are tubercles are found on more easterly birds and range from none to very extensive. He states,"*Very extensive tubercles:* Large mass of white bumps on the lores, under and above the eyes, and on the crown." and it has only been found on *Cathartes aura septentrionalis--*that's the "Eastern" subspecies. The birds I photographed seem to meet his definition for 'moderate' tubercles which he notes are fairly common on the subspecies* C.a. meridionalis* found in Colorado. I have uploaded photos of one these (plus one pic with it's nictitating membrane over it's eye and one without tubercles) on my BirdsAndNature <http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com> SeEtta Moss Canon City http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
