January 16, 2024

The first time I saw a King Vulture (Sarcoramphus papa) in Peru, I was starstruck. Little did I know about vultures, they don’t live in the part of the world where I was born (the Netherlands). The preconceived notions that I had, of vultures being “dirty” dead animals’ eaters and not the prettiest ones in the bird realm, were completely disproven once I saw the King Vulture through my binoculars. What a fantastic piece of nature’s art! The colors, the size, the elegant white feather coat. How does it stay so white and clean with these eating habits?! Why the extremely colorful head and fleshy wobbling knob at the bill?

In this blog we will share some interesting facts about this magnificent bird. And some photos of course, taken in one of the only two places in the world where it is possible to photograph the King Vulture from a hide: the beautiful garden Mirador Pico de Hoz in Manu National Park, Peru. More about this garden later, first a little dive into the world of the King Vulture.

The Americas are home to seven species of vultures (family Cathartidae), including five vultures and two condors. The New World vultures are not genetically closely related to the Old World vultures (family Accipitridae), although they are similar in appearance and behavior. The evolution of both vulture families occurred independently, adapting in similar ways to their environments.

The King Vulture is one of the New World vultures and without doubt the most striking, with its colorful head and wingspan of nearly 2 meters. Its white feather suit with black boards and a dusky gray ruff at the base of the neck, probably reminded the Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus of a bishop’s rope. He gave the vulture the species name Vultur papa, papa meaning bishop in Latin. In 1805 the French zoologist André Marie Constant Duméril renamed the genus Sarcoramphus: “flesh + bill of bird of prey” in Greek.

One of the most distinctive features of the adult King Vulture is the bare skinned head and neck, with skin folds in vivid colors of reds, oranges, yellows, and purple. The eyes are piercing white and it has a pink pendent crop. At the base of the bill, it has an orange red “caruncle”, a fleshy part of skin that flaps sideways when the vulture moves its head. Most birds’ caruncles are used to attract mates, but since King Vulture males and females look largely similar, the exact purpose of its caruncle isn’t yet fully understood. Young birds are entirely dark, and it takes four to five years to attain gradually the adult plumage and colorful head.

Like other vultures, the King Vulture is a scavenger. Its size and the fact that it has the most powerful bill of all American vultures, allows the King Vulture to be the first to dine on a carcass. It is able to rip open areas that the smaller vultures cannot. Carcasses ranging from dead fish, lizards, sloths, monkeys, up to cattle are on the menu. Some reports show that it occasionally kills small reptiles, wounded animals, and even newborn calves.

Vultures are nature’s sanitary engineers. They are helping to prevent the spread of disease by cleaning up carcasses quickly. And another preconception of vultures being “dirty” vaporized in thin air!

The King Vulture has a large habitat range from southern Mexico south to northern Argentina. It inhabits lowlands, dry and humid tropical forests, pre montane foothills, and generally keeps away from areas with human activity.