The 2 Types of Vultures in Maryland (and How to Identify Each One)
October 28, 2026
Look up on almost any warm afternoon in Maryland and there’s a good chance you’ll spot a dark, broad-winged bird tracing slow circles overhead. Maryland is home to two types of vultures, the turkey vulture and the black vulture, and while they’re often mistaken for one another at a distance, they behave quite differently once you know what to look for.
Both species are protected scavengers that play an outsized role in keeping Maryland’s fields, forests, and roadsides free of disease. This guide breaks down how to tell them apart, where each one tends to turn up across the state, and what makes their habits so unusual among North American birds.
Pro Tip: The fastest way to tell these birds apart from the ground is to watch how they fly. A wobbly, unsteady glide with wings held in a shallow V belongs to a turkey vulture, while a steadier flat-winged glide punctuated by quick flaps belongs to a black vulture.
Turkey Vulture
The turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) is the vulture most Marylanders picture first, and it’s the one you’ll see year-round no matter where in the state you live. In Maryland, parts of the population are migratory and others are not, and migrants from northern populations will winter in Maryland, so turkey vultures occur in the state year-round.
Identifying a Turkey Vulture
Turkey vultures look somewhat like turkeys, with big, bald, red heads and upper necks over brownish-black bodies, though they’re larger than turkeys and their broad wings are slightly raised into a “V” shape in flight, with gray coloring underneath that makes them appear two-toned. According to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, turkey vultures fly low to the ground to pick up the scent of dead animals, smelling carrion from over a mile away, and they fly with their wings open in a “V” shape, often wobbling from side to side.
That wobble isn’t a fluke of a single bird having a bad day. It’s a consistent flight signature that separates turkey vultures from hawks, eagles, and their black vulture cousins, all of which tend to hold a steadier course.
Where Turkey Vultures Live in Maryland
Turkey vultures are common around open areas such as farm fields, roadsides, and suburbs, and they’re also drawn to areas with food sources like landfills, construction sites, and trash heaps. The same open-country habits show up wherever the species ranges, including further south in Tennessee and Texas, where turkey vultures are permanent residents rather than seasonal visitors.
They rely on thermal air currents to soar above the ground, sometimes traveling up to 200 miles in a single day, and when they’re not flying or scavenging, particularly at night and in colder weather, they often roost on poles, dead trees, and fence posts. Large roosts are a common sight in rural Maryland counties during the colder months, when local and migrating birds cluster together for warmth and safety.
Diet, Behavior, and Nesting Habits
Turkey vultures are scavengers that eat carrion, using their strong sense of smell to find carcasses even from thousands of feet away, and they actually have one of the largest brain sections for detecting smell of any bird. They eat mostly mammals, but may also eat reptiles, other birds, amphibians, fish, insects, and vegetable matter. That reptile-and-amphibian slice of the diet overlaps with plenty of native Maryland wildlife, from the state’s snakes to its various frogs, though vultures are only interested in animals that are already dead.
Turkey vultures nest on rocky surfaces and ledges, in tree cavities, hollow logs, thickets, mammal burrows, and occasionally in old dilapidated buildings, and they don’t build nests at all, instead scraping out a spot in soil or leaf litter to hold their eggs. According to the Maryland Zoo, the species’ population declined during the 20th century partly due to exposure to the pesticide DDT, but turkey vultures have since made a comeback across their entire range and are now protected by state law in Maryland as well as the federal Migratory Bird Act of 1918, making it illegal to take, kill, or possess one anywhere in the U.S.
When threatened, this vulture has an unusual defense strategy. During the day it forages for food alone or in small groups, looking for carrion and almost never attacking live prey, and it tends to congregate near dumpsters and roadkill; more than one may gather at a carcass, but they take turns feeding, with one chasing others off until it has had its fill, and other species of vulture or raptor may also turn up, since despite their large size, turkey vultures are easily intimidated by competing scavengers.
Black Vulture
The black vulture (Coragyps atratus) is a more recent addition to Maryland’s bird life, and it’s still expanding its footprint across the state. Unlike the turkey vulture’s steady, mile-wide sense of smell, black vultures rely primarily on their exceptional vision to find food.
Identifying a Black Vulture
The black vulture is distinguished by its glossy black plumage, with dark gray skin on its featherless head and a short, hooked beak, while the undersides of its wings show a contrasting pattern with silvery gray tips and trailing edges that stand out in flight. Per the Audubon Field Guide, the black vulture measures roughly 23.6 inches to 2 feet 3 inches long, with a wingspan of 4 feet 4 inches to 4 feet 9 inches, and it presents a very different shape from the turkey vulture: stocky, short-tailed, with a bigger head and broad wings.
In flight, it soars with its wings held flat, and its glides are often punctuated by several quick flaps, with a whitish patch showing near its wingtips and a head that always appears dark gray rather than red. Compared with the New World species found in Maryland, Old World vultures like those in Kenya belong to an entirely separate family, despite looking superficially similar from a distance.
A Newer Arrival to Maryland’s Skies
According to a Maryland DNR fact sheet on the species, the black vulture is relatively new to Maryland; the first recorded nests here date from the beginning of the 20th century, and the expansion of roads and automobiles has likely driven its population growth ever since. That timeline lines up with broader regional records: black vultures were breeding in Maryland and Delaware by the 1950s, with nesting confirmed in Connecticut in 2002, in Washington, D.C. in 2014, and in Vermont in 2020.
Researchers point to a mix of factors behind the spread. Black vultures have rebounded and expanded their range considerably to the north and east, probably due in part to increasing availability of roadkill and warmer temperatures associated with climate change. The Hawk Mountain Sanctuary notes that the species’ range has expanded northward since the 1940s and its numbers seem to be increasing overall, though the exact factors are not well understood; plausible explanations include the end of large-scale persecution, greater food availability, and recovery from the DDT-related declines of the mid-20th century.
Important Note: Both species are covered by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Maryland classifies black vultures and turkey vultures alike as protected non-game birds. A federal permit is required to trap, kill, relocate, or otherwise handle a vulture or its eggs.
Diet, Behavior, and Run-Ins With Turkey Vultures
Black vultures often gather in numbers at carcasses and then displace turkey vultures from the food; their carrion diet includes feral hogs, poultry, cattle, raccoons, coyotes, opossums, and armadillos, and they will sometimes wade into shallow water to feed on floating carrion or catch small fish, occasionally killing weakened live animals such as skunks, opossums, and young livestock. That livestock overlap has real consequences for Maryland farmers: black vultures have been known to kill calves up to several days old, often after being drawn in by the scent of afterbirth, which can attract vultures from great distances.
The relationship between the two species is more opportunistic than friendly. Between the two species, turkey vultures have a much better sense of smell, and black vultures use this to their advantage by following turkey vultures to a carcass; often the more aggressive black vultures will then chase away their turkey vulture cousins to have the food to themselves. Sightings of the two species mixed together are common enough that a resident might mistake one for a large flock of the other at first glance.
This mixed-species crowding shows up in populated areas too. The town of Bowie, Maryland has reported a significant increase in sightings of large birds, often identified as the American crow, black vulture, and turkey vulture, regularly observed roosting in tall trees or sitting atop houses, sheds, and other structures. These large birds appear menacing because of their size and physical features, but they are not known to attack people.
For readers who want to see the difference for themselves, both species are frequently reported at Conowingo Dam and the wetlands of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on the Eastern Shore, along with the ridgelines of Catoctin Mountain Park in Frederick County. A quick side-by-side comparison makes the field marks easier to remember:
| Feature | Turkey Vulture | Black Vulture |
|---|---|---|
| Head color | Red or pink, bald | Dark gray to black, bald |
| Body shape | Longer, lankier, wingspan over 6 feet | Stocky, short-tailed, broad wings |
| Wing pattern in flight | Silvery-gray covers most of underwing | Whitish patch near wingtips only |
| Flight style | Wobbly glide, wings held in a shallow “V” | Flat wings, quick flaps between glides |
| Primary sense for finding food | Smell | Sight |
| Status in Maryland | Established, year-round resident | Newer arrival, still expanding since the 1950s |
Both vultures share the state’s skies, roosts, and even carcasses, but the differences above should make it easy to tell them apart on your next walk or drive through Maryland’s countryside.
Vultures are just one small piece of what makes Maryland’s wildlife worth watching. If two types of vultures in Maryland piqued your curiosity, the state’s hummingbirds and butterflies offer a very different, far more colorful side of the same backyard birdwatching hobby, and for a broader sense of how these scavengers fit into the bigger picture, it’s worth learning how many vulture species exist worldwide.