Vulchers and Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds and Vulchers



When we ranched in Colorado,  I never tired of refilling the hummingbird feeders because of the reward of watching those amazing flashes of color and furious flight around our yard.

Working outside I loved to listen to their whirring wings and unique warble and it wasn’t long before I just had to have my own book on hummingbirds to identify the different ones and learn where they’d traveled from to reach the mountains at just the right time of year.

It was three years before I ever found a nest, although I had searched lots of times.  This one was only feet from the house in a big lodgepole pine.  A tiny, perfectly constructed circle of twigs and fibers with only enough room inside for a quarter coin.   Mine was empty and it made me wonder if I had also obliviously passed by the tiny newborns that had hatched there when they first emerged to try their wings.

Back here on the Oklahoma plains again I missed those hummers and was envious of friends who lived in the tiny towns nearby who hosted these regular summer visitors.  I kept setting out feeders and planting good nectar flowers hoping some would visit our yard,  but after several years with no success of my own, I was about to give up.  Then I read that sometimes to attract hummers to a new area it helps to tie red flags in trees around your yard to catch the attention of those migrating past.  Sure enough it worked! We have at least 2 pair returning every spring now.  They especially love the trumpet vine flowers on our kitchen arbor and we “lunch together” often!

There is another bird, however, that we never care to see;  big black vulchers.  When we drive into a pasture to check cows and see vulchers hovering over an area, it often means a calf or cow is dying or already dead.  These dreaded scavengers have an uncanny ability to know when to be there for lunch. 

I realized recently that I actually know very little about these creatures.  Their nests must be large, but I’ve never seen one.  I’ve never seen a baby vulcher either. They all seem to appear on the scene full-grown and ravenous from some hidden lair.

To satisfy my dark curiosity I did some online research on vulchers.  (Isn’t it wonderful to have such a huge, up to date, and better yet, FREE library in our homes today?)  I already knew they are also called turkey vultures or buzzards and that they feed on dead critters, properly called carrion.  I learned that they nest in caves, hollow trees and thickets, but only during hatching season.  The rest of the time they roost in dead, leafless trees or manmade structures like microwave towers.  Vultures lack a vocal organ and can only hiss and grunt.  Somehow that seems fitting. 

Vulchers are protected by the Migratory Bird act, but I would definitely shoot one dead that was trying to feed on a suffering baby calf!

Unlike most birds, both sexes are identical in plumage and color, and the females are usually larger. They have an ultra keen sense of sight and smell and flying low enough, they detect the gasses of decaying animals.  “Hey, Lucille, did you get a whiff of that?  Yum, yum.  Hiss, hiss.  Grunt!”

Often in our pastures or on the roads we see vulchers standing on the ground with their wings spread, looking very menacing.  Wikipedia says this stance is believed to serve multiple functions: drying the wings, warming the body, and baking off bacteria.  I’m sure they need to do the latter often!

Some other disgusting bits of buzzard info.  They have very few natural predators except an occasional eagle or hungry horned owl.   The vulcher’s primary form of defense is regurgitating semi-digested meat, a foul-smelling substance (imagine that!) which deters most creatures intent on raiding a vulture nest. It will also sting if the predator is close enough to get the vomit in its face or eyes. In some cases, the vulture must rid its crop of a heavy, undigested meal in order to take flight to flee from a potential predator.  (Remind me not to stand under one when I'm shooting at it!)

Now I know that vulchers are just as much God’s creatures as hummingbirds and that they serve a purpose in the overall scheme of wildlife, but you’re sure not going to see me hanging any dead varmints in my trees to attract them to my yard!

And that’s all I’m going to say about that,

plainsgirl