Turkey Vulture

[Kiryon]

Hi! I was outside today with the kids of the daycare I work at and saw what seemed to be turkey or black vultures. I'd never seen them before (Quebec, less than an hour away from the american lines) and was wondering if they could be a danger to pet cockatiels. I know hawks can be but I've never seen any around here. The temperature is starting to warm and I've been planing to take my babies outside when I can but could these birds pose a threat? I don't know if they were just passing through or were settling around here.

We noticed a first one and soon after a second joined and they flew around above our heads for a while before moving on. At first I thought they might be hawks but I looked it up and they looked exactly like that:

 

[DanR]

Pretty sure Turkey Vultures eat exclusively carrion and maybe some fruits. As far as I know they don't bring down their own prey.

 

[jenphilly]

They are scavengers. They are unique in the bird world because of their amazing ability to smell. They actually let thermals carry them around and they are sniffing out gases released by recently dead carcasses.

While they are not a major threat to your cockatiels, where there are vultures, there may well be other birds of prey that will present a very real danger to your pet birds. Even the common black crow is a threat, those things will eat almost anything!

 

[Birdman666]

They only eat them if they are already dead. This is part of nature's clean up crew. We have them all over the place here in TX, and had a lot of them in California as well.