Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture

Cathartes burrovianus

Hunts by smell over open savannas, a rare talent in birds. That vivid yellow head is doing absolutely nothing aerodynamic.

Population: 100,000–1,000,000 mature individuals (stable trend)
Habitat: Open, seasonally wet or flooded subtropical/tropical lowlands — savanna, grassland, marshes, swamps, mangroves, and heavily degraded former forest; widespread in open country, unlike the closely related Greater Yellow-headed Vulture which stays confined to unbroken forest (mainly Amazon Basin)
Fun fact: Like other New World vultures it lacks a syrinx and can only hiss or grunt (no true song), and it cools itself via urohidrosis — voiding waste onto its own legs to lower body temperature by evaporation.
Range: Eastern Mexico south through Central America, and patchily through South America east of the Andes, south to Uruguay/Argentina
Diet: Carrion, located mainly by smell (an ability uncommon among birds, tied to detecting ethyl mercaptan, a decay gas); also opportunistically takes small aquatic animals and invertebrates; depends on larger vultures (e.g., King Vulture) to open tough hides it cannot pierce itself
Size: 0.58 m
Wingspan: 1.57 m
Lifespan: 16 years

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