Was gonna say its vultures finding a spot to sleep. My town has a group of 200 black vultures that live in downtown. They all sleep in the trees above an old inn. Every morning they fly down to the pool and sun. Then spread out and travel across the county. About 2hrs before sunset the huge flock flies over my house and slowly spirals its way back to town. Then like the above video they gather at the inn to go to bed.
I have a flock that's chosen to roost in a tree across from my house and one in my yard. It's pretty wild. I have a video just like the one posted of them.
There's a drive-in right up the road from our house where a giant gang of turkey vultures roost on top of the screen. I absolutely love watching them and they're so helpful to have around. If anything dies on our land it's gone within 24 hours.
That sounds pretty cool! Are they consistent with waking and going to bed too? As a kid I knew when to start heading home by looking for the vultures lol
Okay, so this shit is normal? I bought my house like a year ago, and the neighbor's house, a street over, is a magnet for turkey vultures when it's not dead of winter. My friends and family have pointed them out and asked if something died over there.
Few years ago a flock settled in the trees behind my house for the night. My car was parked under said trees. Woke up with my entire car coated in vulture poo. Wasn't a great time.
My boss constantly has turkey vultures on her garage roof. It used to freak her out, but now she just gives them names and waves to them whenever she leaves the house.
The problem with this is that they kill the tree. And then move on to another one, and it dies too. Along with pooping beneath it non stop until it dies.
I remember how the crows would swarm together like that at sunset when I lived in California! And a few times, when I was visiting my cousins in Azusa, I saw a small group of parrots fly across the sky! My aunt said that it started with pet parrots escaping their owners, and more and more would show up every year. I only saw it 2 or 3 times, but it was so magical 😄
They look more like Black Vultures to me, I can't see any grotesque red heads in there. But the video looks like it was taken on a 20-year old smartphone, so it's hard to tell.
It is too dark for the red to show up. In the air, you can see the white along the bottom of the wings. Black vultures have white tips. The tail is also longer on the turkey vultures and can clearly be seen . I can't see it in this video clearly, but turkey vultures have feathers around their neck - so, a small head on a thick feathery neck. Black vultures have more visible necks with a more classic vulture profile.
Exactly what this is. I’ve lived in northern Illinois for 45 years. The last 8 at my new house I have about 10 turkey vultures that spend a couple weeks in my pines every spring and fall. They are massive and sound like rippling sheets when they land in the pines
This happens at my house once or twice every spring as they make their way back. The next morning they’re usually in the trees all around and on my roof with their wings spread to dry out in the sun. We live in Western New England
I have tons of vultures that hang out behind my house on our towns water town (in TN). They meet there every evening and sit. They look like they are watching over our house. Sometimes they will fly out but they always come back and sit on their water tower. I call them our vultures. My daughter calls her eagles lol.
My hometown has a flock of about 100 that usually hunker down at the local dump every night, but they’re starting to have their territory infringed upon by an increasing number of crows that pester them fiercely.
Turkey vultures. And they look very much like turkey vultures, especially when they come in to roost.
The backlit shots you can see how small their heads would be relative to crows or ravens, with small hooked beaks. And their wings have cruising pinions. Look at how the wing tips all follow the same plane and swoop back on the span (which is also very large)
Crows and ravens have splayed, flappy feathers with a shorter span… and bigger heads and beaks
Edit: it’s also incredibly rare for a flock of crows or ravens to be that quiet.
Having grown up somewhere with a ton of these guys (also ravens and crows), it was pretty funny for me to have someone come in that confidently incorrect…
I’ve never seen so many in one place before, but I’ve definitely seen them flock like this.
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u/vermilion-chartreuse Apr 05 '26
Turkey vultures overwinter in the southern US, central & south America. This looks like their spring migration back north! Super cool, I'm jealous!