Description
The Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture is 53–66 cm (21–26 in) in length, with a wingspan of 150–165 cm (59–65 in) and a tail length of 19–24 cm (7.5–9.4 in). Its weight ranges from 0.95 to 1.55 kg (2.1 to 3.4 lb). Its plumage is black with a green sheen. The throat and the sides of the head are featherless. The head and neck are bare of feathers, and the skin is yellow, with a reddish forehead and nape and a gray-blue crown. The irises of its eyes are red, its legs are white, and its beak is flesh-colored. The eye has a single incomplete row of eyelashes on the upper lid and two rows on the lower lid. The tail is rounded and relatively short for a vulture; the tip of the closed wing extends beyond the tail. Immature Lesser Yellow-headed Vultures have browner plumage, a dusky head, and a white nape.
The beak is thick, rounded, and hooked at the tip. The front toes are long with small webs at their bases and are not adapted to grasping. The opening of the nostril is longitudinal, and the nostrils lack a septum. Like all New World Vultures, the Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture lacks a syrinx, and is therefore unable to make any sound other than a low hiss.
It differs in appearance from the similar Greater Yellow-headed Vulture in several ways. It is smaller than the Greater Yellow-headed Vulture and has a shorter, thinner tail. The plumage is browner than the Greater Yellow-headed Vulture's dark, glossy black plumage. Its legs are lighter in color, and its head is more orange-tinged than the more yellow head of the Greater Yellow-headed Vulture. Its flight is also less steady than that of the Greater Yellow-headed Vulture. The Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture also prefers to live in savannas, as opposed to the preferred forest habitat of the Greater Yellow-headed Vulture, and is less heavily built.
Besides the Greater Yellow-headed Vulture, it is similar to the Turkey Vulture.
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“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)