Black Vulture in wing spread posture on cypress limb at Florida's Big Cypress Preserve. The bird appears wary but curious too.
Whereas the Woodstork is sometimes called Preacher Bird for its elegant, wise-in-the-ways-of-the-universe expression, the Black Vulture with its cloak of black and somber gaze belongs graveside among the mourners. The shambling, sidelong gait, patient gaze, and flat,dusky lustre of its dark feathers only accentuates its brooding appearance. When you see them in groups on a dusty road turning their eyes toward you, darkly watchful, and then with a couple of awkward, teetering hops take to the air, they seem somewhere between comical, sympathetic, and mournful. They don’t always go far, but rather will stay and observe you from the safe elevation of a cypress tree as this one reached safety the vulture looks more curious than alarmed as it suns itself. You can see that the legs of the vulture are streaked with white. This is because, like the Woodstork, the Black Vulture squirts urates or a combination of urine and feces onto its legs for cooling. Also, in this image you can see the tillandsia epiphytes attached to the branches, very common in Big Cypress Preserve.
Size: 3244px × 4028px
Location: Big Cypress Swamp, Everglades, Florida
Photo credit: © Judy Lovell-Janthina Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: american, atratus, big, black, carrion, coragyps, crow, curious, cypress, eater, everglades, florida, plumage, posture, preserve, purifier, raptor, spread, sunning, swamp, vulture, wary, wiing, wing
