Greater Yellow-headed Vulture

Cathartes melambrotus

Finds hidden carcasses under closed canopy by smell alone. In Amazon forests, no other vulture reaches the feast first.

Population: 100,000–1,000,000 individuals (global estimate; precise mature-individual count not published; population trend decreasing)
Habitat: Undisturbed lowland tropical moist forest of the Amazon Basin and the Guianas, from sea level up to about 1,400-1,410 m; also forest swamps and forest-pasture/fragmented-forest edges; rarely strays far from continuous forest canopy
Fun fact: Like its relative the Turkey Vulture, the Greater Yellow-headed Vulture has an unusually keen sense of smell and can detect ethyl mercaptan, a gas produced early in carcass decay, allowing it to find carrion hidden beneath dense rainforest canopy that purely sight-hunting scavengers would miss.
Range: Amazonia and the Guiana Shield: southeastern Colombia, southern/eastern Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, northern/western Brazil, eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru, and northern Bolivia; non-migratory resident
Diet: Obligate carrion scavenger; feeds mainly on recently dead small-to-medium mammals (sloths, monkeys, opossums, armadillos, rodents, under ~5 kg) and occasionally snakes and fish, located largely by smell (detects ethyl mercaptan produced early in carcass decay)
Size: 0.75 m
Wingspan: 1.72 m
Lifespan: 8 years

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