Types of Vultures in Pennsylvania: Turkey and Black Vulture Identification Guide
September 22, 2026
Look up on a warm Pennsylvania afternoon and a dark bird tilting unsteadily across the sky on wings held in a shallow V is hard to miss. That wobbly flight is one of the easiest clues for sorting out the types of vultures in Pennsylvania, where two very different species share the same roadsides, farm fields, and roosts.
Two of the three species of vultures found in North America have been spotted in Pennsylvania, and they are the black vulture and turkey vulture. One has called the Commonwealth home for generations, and the other showed up much more recently, spreading north into the state over the past several decades. Both birds look unsettling up close, but they are incredibly important to the environment because they eat dead animals that most other predators cannot stomach, which helps stop the spread of disease.
Before getting into the details of each bird, it helps to know that vultures worldwide come in far more varieties than most backyard birders realize. If you want the bigger picture, the guide to how many types of vultures exist around the globe puts Pennsylvania’s two residents into a much larger family tree.
Turkey Vulture
The turkey vulture is the most common and widespread vulture in Pennsylvania, and in fact throughout the Americas, with a range extending from southern Canada to the tip of South America. Its scientific name, Cathartes aura, roughly translates to “cleansing breeze,” a nod to the bird’s role as nature’s cleanup crew. Most Pennsylvanians know this species on sight, even if they have never learned its proper name.
Turkey vultures look somewhat like turkeys, with big, bald, red heads and upper necks over brownish-black bodies, though they are considerably larger than any turkey, and in flight their broad wings are held slightly raised in a “V.” That red coloring is not fixed, either. According to a local Philadelphia birding feature, a turkey vulture’s bright red head can change shade with mood and temperature, flushing deeper when the bird is agitated or courting and paling when it relaxes. Anyone curious about other species with a similarly bold head color can compare notes with the red-headed birds found across Pennsylvania.
Turkey vultures are not exactly heavyweights despite their commanding presence in the sky. They are roughly the size of a medium dog but weigh only around three pounds. That light frame, paired with a wingspan approaching six feet, lets them ride rising air with almost no effort. In soaring flight, a turkey vulture is identified by its wings held in a dihedral or “V” pattern, a slight rocking motion of the body, and a two-toned underwing with a dark leading edge and a lighter trailing edge.
Pro Tip: Watch for the wobble. A soaring bird that tips side to side while holding its wings in a shallow V is almost certainly a turkey vulture, not a hawk or eagle.
Smell, not sight, drives most of this bird’s hunting success. Their sense of smell is so sensitive that they can detect dead meat from roughly eight miles away. A joint Pennsylvania and Maryland feeding study backs this up with real numbers: researchers recorded turkey vultures feeding on cattle, swine, poultry, sheep, groundhogs, deer, skunks, raccoons, rabbits, rodents, and even the occasional fish, with domestic animals making up 58 percent of feedings and wild animals the remaining 42 percent. That varied menu occasionally overlaps with other Pennsylvania wildlife, including the small mammals covered in the guide to rabbits found throughout the state.
Despite that broad diet, turkey vultures stick strictly to the dead. It is said that turkey vultures will never attack live prey. Within Pennsylvania, the species shows a seasonal pattern worth noting for birdwatchers: turkey vultures are found in northern Pennsylvania only during the breeding season but stay all year across the rest of the state, and they turn up in 23 percent of summer checklists and 12 percent of winter checklists submitted by bird watchers statewide.
Social behavior rounds out the picture. Groups of turkey vultures have earned some memorable nicknames over the years. A group of vultures is called a “committee,” a “volt,” or a “venue” on the ground, while a group in flight becomes a “kettle,” or a “wake” when feeding. Pennsylvania’s neighbors to the south see the same bird behave similarly; the overview of vulture species found in Tennessee describes nearly identical roosting and feeding habits.
Black Vulture
The black vulture tells a very different Pennsylvania story. The turkey vulture is a historic resident of Pennsylvania, while the black vulture is a recent immigrant, though both are now present in the state throughout the year. Its scientific name is Coragyps atratus, and its arrival in Pennsylvania is recent enough that wildlife biologists have documented the expansion in detail.
According to the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, black vultures extended their range into Pennsylvania in the early part of the 20th century, with the first confirmed account of nesting in the Commonwealth reported in 1952, and the species has since become a fairly common breeder near Hawk Mountain. State survey data confirms the trend continues. The black vulture has expanded its range in the Northeast and is now commonly found in southeastern Pennsylvania, with Breeding Bird Surveys indicating a 10 percent annual increase between 1966 and 2009.
Telling the two species apart comes down to a handful of reliable field marks. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds, black vultures are large, heavy-bodied, carrion-eating birds with a short tail and broad, plank-like wings tipped with white. Flight style gives away the identification just as quickly. Unlike the turkey vulture, the black vulture does not rock back and forth in flight. Instead, black vultures fly with stronger, quicker wingbeats, typically flapping several times before settling into a short glide.
- Head color: black and bare, versus the turkey vulture’s red skin
- Wing pattern: silvery patches only near the wingtips, not along the whole trailing edge
- Body shape: shorter, more compact, and stockier overall
- Flight behavior: flap-and-glide rather than a steady, rocking soar
Black vultures also behave differently around a carcass. Turkey vultures have a much better sense of smell, and black vultures use this fact to their advantage by following turkey vultures to a carcass, with the more aggressive black vultures often chasing away their turkey vulture cousins to have the food to themselves. That aggression sometimes extends beyond scavenging. Black vultures primarily eat carrion, but unlike most other vultures, they are known to kill animals to feed on fresh meat, and it is not uncommon for them to prey on living skunks, opossums, and livestock such as baby pigs, calves, and lambs.
Nesting habits differ from the turkey vulture as well. Black vultures nest in the tops of broken tree trunks, in vacant buildings, or on the ground in spots with sufficient overhead cover. That flexibility helps explain why the species has settled comfortably into human-altered landscapes across southeastern Pennsylvania, from farmland to small towns along the Susquehanna River.
That comfort with people has caused real friction in some communities. One Lancaster County town became a well-known example when local roosts grew out of control. Scores of black vultures were reported ruling the roost in the town of Marietta, harassing residents, wrecking homes, and coating entire trees with their droppings, with one longtime resident calling it the worst year yet. Residents in the town reported the birds pecking at roofs, porch furniture, and garbage cans, while trees were nearly covered in white droppings.
Important Note: Nuisance behavior does not change a black vulture’s legal status. Both black and turkey vultures are protected non-game birds in Pennsylvania, and a federal permit is required to trap, kill, relocate, or otherwise handle a vulture or its eggs. Anyone dealing with a large roost should contact USDA Wildlife Services or a licensed wildlife control agent rather than attempting removal.
Pennsylvania’s black vultures are far from unique to the region. Old World vultures found on other continents look and behave quite differently, as shown in the roundup of vulture species native to Kenya, where several species rely far more on sight than smell to locate food.
Both species remain wary of one habitat feature: open water. Like other soaring migrants, black vultures typically avoid crossing large bodies of water. That single behavioral quirk shapes migration routes for vultures across much of eastern North America, funneling birds along ridgelines rather than over the Great Lakes or Chesapeake Bay.
The two species also differ sharply in raw flight ability, according to the National Park Service. The black vulture, though capable of sustained soaring flight, is no match for its cousin, since a heavier body and shorter wings and tail force the black vulture to flap often just to gain and maintain altitude. The turkey vulture, by contrast, barely needs to flap at all once it catches a thermal.
| Feature | Turkey Vulture | Black Vulture |
|---|---|---|
| Head Color | Bald, bright red skin | Bald, black or gray-black skin |
| Wingspan | Up to 6 feet | About 4.5 to 5 feet |
| Flight Style | Steady soaring, rocks side to side, wings in a “V” | Flap-and-glide, flatter wings, no rocking |
| PA Population Trend | Widespread and common statewide | Rapidly expanding, concentrated in the southeast |
| Feeding Behavior | Carrion only, locates food by smell | Mostly carrion, occasionally kills weak or small live prey |
Timing matters for anyone hoping to see either species in large numbers. Hawk Mountain’s decades of migration counts suggest the best chance to see black vultures in significant numbers is late October, based on a 67-year annual average and record counts recorded in the late 1990s. Turkey vultures, being far less migratory in Pennsylvania, are visible across a much longer stretch of the year.
Pro Tip: Bring binoculars to a ridge or overlook on a sunny fall afternoon. Thermals form best when the ground has had time to warm, so late morning through mid-afternoon tends to produce the most soaring activity from both species.
Vultures rarely top anyone’s list of favorite backyard birds, but Pennsylvania’s skies host plenty of more colorful company too. Readers building out a full backyard checklist might enjoy the seasonal rundown of hummingbirds that visit Pennsylvania or the broader look at orange-colored birds across the state, both a striking contrast to the black-and-red palette of the state’s carrion-eaters.
Whether soaring in a wobbling V or flapping in short, choppy bursts, both types of vultures in Pennsylvania fill a role that no other bird in the state can match. Learning to tell a turkey vulture from a black vulture at a glance takes practice, but once the field marks click into place, the difference becomes obvious every time.