Today we have a special Valentine’s Day video from Tara Tanaka (Flickr page here, Vimeo page here); it’s culled “Black Vulture Romance: Just one look. . . “, and shows that you don’t have to be pretty to find love. Tara’s notes:
I was culling videos from my last birding trip around Florida, and realized that this clip was perfect for Valentine’s Day. It almost looked like a flip of her wing was the thing that so piqued his interest and set off his dramatic display. Another vulture photo-bombed the couple, and then another bird’s alarm call broke the mood for this romantic pair. The loud bird call in the background is a Limpkin.
Be sure to watch it on the Vimeo site, enlarged and in high definition. (The Black Vulture is Coragyps atratus, the limpkin is Aramus guarauna.)
Very sweet and charming! Not something I would think to say regarding vultures, but I am pressed to say it.
I think she said, let’s go find something dead.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder – definitely. Actually, they aren’t all that bad looking birds. Not the worst anyway. I bet the chicks are as cute as kittens.
On one route that I drive, I go by a forest near a landfill. There are quite a few turkey vultures, and I am sure they are nesting in the forest, and frequent foragers at the landfill. They are indeed graceful fliers.
Nothing can make one yearn for the imminent apocalypse quite so longingly as a scene of coyotes and turkey vultures, awash in fluorescent green light, competing over a Starbucks dumpster at 4 AM.
This is just gorgeous, and I never thought I would say that about vultures!