Vulture

Vultures are large birds with bald heads and sharp beaks. They’re scavengers, meaning they eat animals that are already dead. Yuck! These birds may not be pretty, but they sure are interesting. Ready to join Albert as he explores amazing vulture facts for toddlers, preschoolers and kindergartners? Click on the images to hear silly sounds and then read about fun vulture facts like what do vultures look like?, what sound do vultures make?, how big are vultures?, what do vultures eat?, where do vultures live?, and more fun facts about vultures!

What do vultures look like?

Vultures are birds. They have feathers, are warm-blooded and lay eggs.

Vultures are big birds with excellent eyesight. They are often seen high up in the sky, circling and soaring.

A lot of vultures have a bald head or much shorter feathers on their neck and head than the rest of their body. This helps them to stay clean while eating.

What sound do vultures make?

Click the the image to hear the sound!

Vultures make a few different sounds. They can hiss, grunt and yap. Baby vultures can hiss and cough when they beg for food and the adults will coo back at them.

How big are vultures?

Vultures are big birds.

Condors are a type of vulture. They are the biggest flying birds in the world. Their wingspan (the length of both their wings when stretched out) is 10 feet (3 m) long! That’s as long as the height of a basketball hoop!

The smallest vulture is called the hooded vulture and is the size of a crow.

What do vultures eat?

Vultures are carnivores and scavengers.

That means that they only eat meat from animals that have already died.

They don’t actively hunt their prey, but they can kill a weak or sick animal.

Where do vultures live?

Vultures live all over the world, except for Australia and islands in the ocean.

They like deserts, open grasslands and savannahs and some mountainous areas.

More fun facts about vultures for kids

A group of flying vultures is called a kettle. A group of resting vultures is called a committee or a volt.
Some vultures can smell a dead animal from a mile (1.5 kilometers) high in the sky!
Some vultures vomit when they feel threatened! Yuk! If a predator comes close to them, they will puke up their meal. This makes the vulture lighter so they can take off easier and it also distracts the predator.
If we ate dead animals that had been lying in the hot sun for a few days, we would probably get very sick. That’s because there are a lot of bacteria found on dead animals. Vultures have very strong acid in their tummies which kills the bacteria. This means they can eat lots of dead animals without getting a tummy ache and without getting sick.
Vultures have a social order. That means they have to wait their turn before eating. The biggest vultures are allowed to eat first and the smallest have to wait until last.
Vultures can see food on the ground from more than 2 miles (3 kilometers) in the sky.
Some vultures can soar in the sky at 37,000 feet (11 kilometers)! That’s as high as a jumbo jet! Vultures fly high up so that they can scan a large area for food.

Sources: Wikipedia, Live Science, Creative Commons, Britannica.com and Freesound.org