Look up from almost any mountain overlook in the South Carolina Upstate, and there is a good chance you will eventually see a large dark bird circling above the valleys. From the ground it might look like a hawk or even an eagle. Get high enough into the mountains, though, and the view can completely change.

Sometimes you are looking down on the bird.

That was the case during a recent hike in the Upstate, when a Turkey Vulture came gliding along the mountainside. Instead of watching it as a distant silhouette overhead, we were nearly eye level with it as it banked across the valley. At times the bird passed below the overlook with miles of forest stretching beneath its wings.

It was one of those mountain encounters that makes you stop walking and simply watch.

Meet the Turkey Vulture

The Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) is one of the most recognizable large birds in the Carolinas, although it is often mistaken for a hawk or eagle.

Adults have dark brown to nearly black bodies and small featherless red heads. Their wings are enormous compared with the rest of their body. A Turkey Vulture’s wingspan generally reaches about 67 to 70 inches, approaching six feet from wingtip to wingtip.

Despite that size, they weigh only around four pounds. Their relatively light bodies combined with those huge wings make them exceptionally efficient gliders.

That is exactly what makes them so impressive to watch in the mountains.

Why Are Vultures Always Circling the Mountains?

It is easy to assume that a circling vulture has found something dead below.

That is not necessarily the case.

Turkey Vultures are masters at using moving air to travel while expending very little energy. As the sun heats the ground, pockets of warmer air rise and create thermals. Vultures spread their wings and ride those columns of air upward.

The mountains give them another advantage.

When wind encounters a mountain slope or ridge, some of that air is forced upward. A soaring bird can use this rising air to remain aloft and travel along a ridge with surprisingly little flapping.

Cornell describes the Turkey Vulture as a bird that characteristically rides thermals and spends much of its time soaring with very few wingbeats.

From a mountain overlook, you can sometimes watch the entire process.

A vulture may appear far below you, begin circling, gain hundreds of feet of elevation, and eventually pass beside or even above the overlook without appearing to flap its wings much at all.

How to Recognize One in Flight

Turkey Vultures have one of the most distinctive flight profiles of any large bird in the Upstate.

Watch the wings.

Rather than holding them perfectly flat, a Turkey Vulture usually holds its wings slightly raised in a shallow V shape. Birders call this a dihedral. The bird also tends to rock or tilt from side to side while soaring.

The underside of the wings provides another clue. Most of the body and leading portion of the wing appear dark, while the flight feathers are noticeably lighter. This creates a two-toned appearance across much of the underside of the wings.

From a distance, those characteristics can be more useful than trying to see the bird’s red head.

Turkey Vulture or Black Vulture?

The Upstate is home to another very similar bird: the Black Vulture.

Seeing the head clearly makes identification fairly easy. Adult Turkey Vultures have red heads while Black Vultures have dark gray or black heads.

But there are easier clues when the birds are flying hundreds of feet away.

Turkey Vultures have longer tails and longer-looking wings. Their lighter flight feathers extend across much of the underside of the wing.

Black Vultures have shorter tails and more compact bodies. Their wings appear broader and have distinctive pale patches concentrated near the wingtips. They also tend to flap more frequently.

South Carolina DNR lists the average wingspan of a Turkey Vulture at about 67 inches compared with about 59 inches for a Black Vulture.

Once you learn the difference, identifying the two while they are soaring becomes surprisingly easy.

They Can Actually Smell Their Dinner

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Turkey Vultures is something you cannot see.

They have an exceptional sense of smell.

Most birds rely heavily on vision when locating food. Turkey Vultures use both sight and smell to locate carrion. Cornell notes that their excellent sense of smell plays a major role in finding food.

South Carolina DNR also points out an interesting difference between our two vultures: Turkey Vultures can locate food by smell, while Black Vultures lack the same highly developed sense of smell.

That sometimes leads Black Vultures to follow Turkey Vultures toward food.

Nature’s Cleanup Crew

Their dining habits may not be glamorous, but vultures perform an important job.

Turkey Vultures are scavengers. Their diet consists largely of dead animals, including mammals, but they may also consume dead reptiles, birds, amphibians, fish, and other animals.

In other words, they are part of nature’s cleanup crew.

Every deer carcass, road-killed animal, or other remains removed by vultures represents organic material being quickly returned to the ecosystem.

Interestingly, their feet are relatively weak compared with those of hawks and eagles. South Carolina DNR notes that vultures have strong bills for tearing food but comparatively weak feet and cannot carry much weight.

So that enormous bird circling overhead is not preparing to swoop down and carry away your dog.

It is looking for something that is already dead.

Where Do Turkey Vultures Sleep?

When evening arrives, Turkey Vultures gather at roosting locations.

They may use large trees, rocky areas, and other elevated secluded locations. Groups sometimes gather in wooded hollows and ravines, particularly near rivers and lakes. Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures can even share the same communal roost.

Their nesting habits are equally interesting.

Turkey Vultures do not construct the kind of stick nest associated with hawks and eagles. Instead, they may lay eggs in hollow logs, caves, dense vegetation, abandoned structures, and protected rock ledges.

That makes the rocky terrain of the Blue Ridge foothills particularly suitable habitat.

Turkey Vultures in South Carolina

Turkey Vultures are not occasional visitors to the state.

South Carolina DNR describes them as common throughout South Carolina year-round, although migration changes which individual birds may be present at different times of the year.

They can survive in an impressive variety of landscapes. Cornell lists open woodlands, farmland, and rangeland among their common habitats, while roadsides provide another familiar place to spot them searching for food.

But the mountains provide one of the best places to actually appreciate how they fly.

Watch the Sky on Your Next Mountain Hike

The next time you reach an overlook at Table Rock, Caesars Head, Sassafras Mountain, or another high point in the Upstate, spend a few minutes watching the sky.

Look for a large dark bird barely moving its wings.

Watch for the shallow V.

Then watch it rock gently from side to side as it circles.

You may be looking at a Turkey Vulture using the same mountain winds that these birds have ridden for countless generations.

They may never receive the attention given to Bald Eagles or Peregrine Falcons. Their bald red heads and appetite for dead animals certainly do not help their reputation.

But watch one glide silently past a mountain overlook with thousands of acres of Blue Ridge forest beneath it, and the Turkey Vulture suddenly looks very different.

It looks exactly where it belongs.