Black vulture
Vultur atratus Bechstein, 1793. In the United States, the vulture receives legal protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. The species name, ātrātus, means ‘clothed in black’, from the Latin āter ‘dull black’ It is the only extant member of the genus Coragyps.
About Black vulture in brief
Vultur atratus Bechstein, 1793. The black vulture is a scavenger and feeds on carrion, but will also eat eggs or kill newborn animals. It lays its eggs in caves or hollow trees or on the bare ground, and generally raises two chicks each year, which it feeds by regurgitation. In the United States, the vulture receives legal protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. The species name, ātrātus, means ‘clothed in black’, from the Latin āter ‘dull black’ It is the only extant member of the genus Coragyps, which is in the family Cathartidae. It is basal to a lineage that gave rise to the turkey and greater and lesser yellow-headed vultures, diverging around 12 million years ago. In 2007 the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society unsuccessfully proposed to be the species of the Pleistocene, known as the black occidentalis vulture. This species of vulture did not differ much from the bird of today except for size; it was some 10–15% larger, and had a relatively flatter bill and wider bill. It seems to have filled the same ecological niche as the living form, and indeed has evolved into it by decreasing in size during the last ice age. It has black plumage, a featherless, grayish-black head and neck, and a short, hooked beak.
It inhabits relatively open areas which provide scattered forests or shrublands. With a wingspan of 1. 5 m, the black vulture is a large bird though relatively small for a vulture, and has a long, black beak and a black tail. It also feeds at garbage dumps, and finds its meals either by using its keen eyesight or by following other vultured, which possess a keen sense of smell. The vulture’s only vocalizations are grunts or low hisses. It breeds well into Canada and south to Tierra del Fuego, but has a somewhat more restricted distribution than its compatriot, the turkey vulture,. It is unrelated to the Eurasian black vumption, an Old World vulture in theFamily Accipitridae. It was first described in 1793 by German ornithologist Johann Matthäus Bechtein. The common name is derived from theLatin word vulturus, which means ‘tearer’, and is a reference to its feeding habits. The American black Vulture has been designated the official name by the International Ornithologists’ Union. The name is also commonly used, and in 2007 it was named the ‘American black Vultures’ by the South America Ornithologist’s Society. The official name of the species is C. urubu, but it is also known as ‘Black vulture’ or ‘The Black Vulture’
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This page is based on the article Black vulture published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 02, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
