List of Birds of South Carolina - New World Vultures

New World Vultures

Order: Ciconiiformes. Family: Cathartidae

The New World vultures are not closely related to Old World vultures, but superficially resemble them because of convergent evolution. Like the Old World vultures, they are scavengers. However, unlike Old World vultures, which find carcasses by sight, New World vultures have a good sense of smell with which they locate carcasses. In South Carolina, two species have been recorded.

  • American Black Vulture, Coragyps atratus
  • Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura

Read more about this topic:  List Of Birds Of South Carolina

Famous quotes containing the words world and/or vultures:

    Let us, then, take our compass; we are something, and we are not everything. The nature of our existence hides from us the knowledge of first beginnings which are born of the nothing; and the littleness of our being conceals from us the sight of the infinite. Our intellect holds the same position in the world of thought as our body occupies in the expanse of nature.
    Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)

    We are the party of all labor.
    The whole earth shall be ours to share
    And every race and craft our neighbor.
    No idle class shall linger there
    Like vultures on the wealth we render
    From field and factory, mill and mine.
    Tomorrow’s sun will rise in splendor
    And light us till the end of time.
    Eugène Pottier (1816–1887)