Black Vulture Nesting Habits

Black Vulture | Identification | Feeding | Breeding | Movements

Black vultures’ nesting habits attract the attention of bird enthusiasts. They are secretive and rarely reveal when or where they are nesting. In North America, the black vulture nesting season lasts about four months. They breed all year round in South America.

Table of Contents

Black vultures breed in February through May
They breed only once a year
Black vultures mate for life
They do not build nests but lay eggs on the ground
The female lays 2 eggs on overage
The incubation period is about 38 days
Both parents incubate and feed the young
Young are fed by adults after fledging
They use the same nest multiple times
The nesting period lasts for about 4 months
Photo: Richard Bonnett.

Black vulture nesting season

The time of the year that black vultures breed varies with latitudes and regions.

Southern Region: A black vulture’s breeding season begins in February and March in the southern portion of its range. During these months, black vultures start to exhibit courtship displays and copulations.

Egg laying begins in early February. Nestlings of various ages were reported in late March.

The black vulture’s breeding range includes all of Florida, southern Georgia, southern Alabama, southern Mississippi, Louisiana, and central and south Texas.

Northern Region: In the northern portion of the black vulture’s breeding range, egg-laying begins in late February or early March.

Reports of nestlings begin by mid-April and May.

The northern portion of the black vulture’s breeding range is roughly in and around North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and the northern part of Texas.

The nesting period of the black vulture in Central America becomes less seasonal as it expands to several months.

Throughout South America, black vultures breed every month of the year. However, most nesting occurs between June and September.

Black vultures breed earlier in the south
Birds in the north begin about a month later
Breeding occurs from late winter to early summer
The courtship display starts in January
In South America, black vultures breed all year round

Length of the black vulture nesting season

The black vulture nesting period lasts for about 124 days (four months), from when the first egg is laid to when the first chick leaves the nest.

Because young vultures walk and jump around the nest site before flying, determining the day that chicks leave the nest is difficult.

Black vultures breed only once a year

Black vultures only attempt to raise a brood once per year. Breeding pairs will likely start another attempt if they lose their eggs early in the nesting season.

When eggs are lost during the late stages of incubation, a breeding pair is likely to skip breeding that year.

How do black vultures find a mate and form a pair bond?

Black vultures form pair bonds during their daily routines. They are gregarious and perform all of their daily activities in flocks.

Unlike other birds, black vultures do not prepare a nest, establish a territory, or offer food to attract females. Pair formation is noticed only through their behavior.

Courtship displays performed by males and females, both on the ground and in the air, indicate pair formation. Despite black vultures being a common bird, courtship displays are rarely observed.

Courtship displays of black vultures include:

Air chases: In an air chase display, the male first dives at the female, and she responds by diving. The two then engage in a fast downward pursuit.

The male follows every gyration the female makes. These chases can last for minutes.

Occasionally, a male dives at a presumably female individual, but she does not dive or engage in response, possibly signaling a lack of interest on her part.
Ground Courtship Display: During the ground courtship display, the male opens his wings widely and stretches his neck forward while performing heavy and audible exhalations.

When the female shows interest both birds face each other with their stretched wings and neck as they jump up and down with an open bill making muffled bark-like noises.

Signs of pair formation

An obvious sign that a pair has formed is that male and female black vultures spend time together and perch side by side.

Ornithologists searching for black vulture nests agree that seeing two black vultures together away from a flock is sure that the pair is prospecting a possible nest site.

Mated breeding pairs are typically seen perched together near their nest site. Photo: Ubaldo Filho.

Do black vultures mate for life?

A pair of black vultures mate for life, so long as both remain alive.

A long-term study on breeding black vultures found that breeding pairs stayed together for up to 12 consecutive breeding seasons.

A bond between the pair that lasted 12 consecutive years was only broken by the death of the female. Afterward, the male found another mate and carried on breeding.

Mated black vulture pairs are among the most faithful partners in the bird world.

The use of DNA fingerprinting is helping ornithologists discover that many birds that form breeding pairs engage in extra-pair copulations.

DNA testing of offspring reveals that often, more than one male fathers the offspring.

A study that used DNA fingerprinting to analyze 36 nestling black vultures in separate nests found that in each instance, the young vultures were fathered by only one male.

The evidence suggests that breeding black vultures do not engage in extra-pair copulation.

Black vulture breeding Cycle

Overview of the black vulture’s breeding stages.

Pair Formation and Mating

New breeding pairs engage in on-the-ground and air courtship displays.
Black vultures do not offer food nor build a nest to impress potential mates.
Previously formed breeding pairs stay together throughout the year.
New breeding pairs prospect for a nesting site.
Existing pairs generally return to the same breeding site.
Copulation in North America begins in February and March.

Black Vulture Nest

Black vultures nest in abandoned or little-used barns, dilapidated houses, and other man-made structures.
Black vultures nest under fallen trees, underbrush piles, and hollow bases of trees.
They prefer dark enclosures to place their nests.
Black vultures do not build nests.
Eggs are laid on bare ground or over debris.

Egg-laying and Incubation

The female usually lays one to three eggs. Two eggs are the norm.
A full clutch is laid in about 4 to 5 days.
The female initiates full incubation after she lays the last egg of the clutch.
Eggs are greenish or bluish with brown blotches, specks, and scribbles. Egg color and markings are variable.
Male and female incubate the eggs.

Egg-Hatching and Feeding

The egg incubation period is 38 to 39 days.
Some eggs hatch earlier than others.
Black vultures hatch with a coat of buffy down.
Both parents feed the young a liquid diet for the first 14 days and solid food after that.
Nestlings are fed 15 to 25 times a day for the first two weeks and only once per day when they are ready to fledge the nest. Photo: Emily Carter.

Black Vulture Nest

Where do black vultures build their nests?

Black vultures are somewhat flexible about where they establish their nests. They only require a flat surface in a dark enclosure or cave-like structure.

Almost any nesting habitat will do as long as it meets the basic cave-like requirements for black vultures.

In wild areas, black vultures nest near the base of large fallen trees, under thickets, brush piles, in hollow bases of trees, and even in large holes in standing trees.

Across urban, suburban, and farmland areas, black vultures nest in dark corners of old barns, under equipment in abandoned sheds, in attics, in unused chicken coops, and hunting blinds.

In cities, black vultures nest in recesses of tall buildings, church attics, and abandoned or unused floors that allow access to the interior.

What does a black vulture nest look like?

Black vultures do not build nests. The eggs are laid in a depression in the ground, on debris, gravel, or a rough surface that ensures they stay in place without rolling away.

A pair may gather sticks around the eggs to stop them from rolling in some cases.

Do black vultures defend nesting territories?

Black vultures do not keep nor defend nesting territories. A pair picks a nest site and keeps it as secret as possible so as not to attract potential predators to the nest.

Black vultures can nest near each other if adequate nesting sites exist and are chosen by other pairs.

In general, birds keep nesting territories to protect the food resources in an area that serves the breeding pair and its offspring.

Black vulture’s food is unpredictable in time and space. There is no reason to spend energy on protecting an unpredictable food source.

Do vultures use the same nest every year?

Black vultures tend to use the same nest every year, especially if they successfully raise young there.

According to field observations, one nest was used by a pair of breeding vultures for six consecutive years.

During a breeding season, breeding pairs use only one nest. In the event that a pair loses its eggs early in the season, that pair is likely to choose another nest site for its second breeding attempt.

Nesting vultures sometimes use a separate part of the barn, abandoned house, or structure they used the year before.

What are black vultures’ nest predators?

A study that reviewed black vulture nesting records found that nest predation is relatively high. Of the nests analyzed, 61% lost one egg, 17% lost all chicks at the downy stage, and 21% lost one or both nestlings at the feathered stage (Jackson 1983).

While there is little documentation about predators responsible for black vultures’ nest losses, it is suspected that foxes, possums, snakes, and rats are the more likely predators.

Where do black vultures sleep at night?

Black vultures sleep at predetermined roost sites scattered around the area where they forage for food.

Adult vultures usually roost at the same roost site each night but can shift depending on food availability relative to existing roosts.

Young vultures may switch roosts until they settle down, at least temporarily.

Typically one member of a breeding pair spends the night at a roost site while the other stays in the nest to incubate the eggs or brood the young.

Nesting sites are usually close to roosting areas.

Black Vulture Eggs and Incubation

How many eggs does a female black vulture lay?

The female black vulture lays one to three eggs, but two is the average and more common clutch size.

A breeding pair may inspect a nest site for weeks, ensuring it is free from predators and disturbances before the female lays an egg. Two to three days later, she lays the second egg. Laying the third egg may take the same amount of time if there is one.

Unlike most birds that squad a little and drop the eggs, vultures lay their eggs directly on the ground.

Possibly, the reason for placing the egg so carefully on the ground is that black vultures are long-legged birds, and impact with the ground can damage the egg.

Nests with three eggs are rare.

Nests with just one egg are also rare. Black vulture biologists suggest that nests with only one egg were likely to have lost the other egg to predators.

What do black vulture eggs look like?

The eggs of black vultures can range in color from green to bluish, with dark-brown or maroon blotches, specks, and scribbles on the wide end.

Some pairs can have paler eggs than others.

After a few weeks of incubation, the eggs of the black vulture may appear whitish and dirty due to contact with the vulture’s body fluids and dirt.

Eggs

Do males and females black vultures incubate the eggs?

Both parent vultures share the incubation duties equally, alternating 24-hour shifts.

Changeovers take place in the mornings or early afternoons. A bird taking over nesting duties will be relieved by the other 24 hours later.

After laying the first eggs, the female black vulture may start incubating it intermittently or not at all. She will likely wait until she lays the last egg, whether it is the second or third one, before starting incubation.

Black vultures incubate their eggs in a similar fashion as penguins. A bird incubating eggs holds the eggs between its long and inner toes while keeping its feet close together. The eggs do not touch the ground while they are being incubated.

An incubating vulture can cover short distances while transporting its eggs by shuffling its feet.

Vultures accommodate eggs under their belly when they roll out of the nest on flat surfaces.

According to field observations, eggs have been observed rolling off of the incubating bird during the night. The eggs are chilled until the following morning when the incubating vulture moves them under its belly.

The black vulture incubation period

Black vultures incubate their eggs for 38 to 39 days until they hatch.

Eggs can hatch on the same day or up to three days apart.

Hatching time depends on when the female starts incubating the egg. When she starts incubating her first egg from the day she lays it, that egg will hatch first.

The hatching of the black vulture eggs

Baby vultures take about 24 hours to hatch.

The chick inside the egg breaks the shell first, causing a bulge. After some time, it breaks the shell to form a ring, releasing and opening the lid on the wide end.

What does a newly hatched black vulture chick look like?

Newly-hatched black vulture. This chick is one day old.

Baby vultures hatch with open eyes and a (wet at first) light buff coat of down.

The coat of light-buff down becomes thicker and more buff in color over the next few weeks.

The skin on the head and face are black. The beak is relatively short and also black.

At hatching, the leg color of a baby black vulture is grayish-pink. After a few weeks, the leg color turns gray, as in adult birds.

Care of the young black vultures in the nest

After hatching, both parents take 24-hour shifts to brood and feed the young.

On day 14, after hatching, the baby vultures are capable of thermoregulation, and their parents begin to leave them un-brooded in the nest for more extended periods during the day.

The parents continue to brood the chicks overnight until approximately day 27, after which night brooding becomes intermittent and eventually ceases.

Once the night brooding stops, the parents no longer spend the night in the nest, and the young vultures are left alone overnight.

*The parent opens its mouth, and the young vulture takes the food from inside the parent’s throat. Photo: Jairo Gallego.*

Feeding of young vultures

Male and female black vultures feed the newly hatched nestlings the liquid food they produce in their crops.

The parent vultures reach down and touch the nestling’s bill, so this raises its bill to receive the liquid food.

The parents feed the nestlings in the first two weeks as frequently as 15 to 25 times a day.

After about ten days, the parents mix the liquid food with semi-solid chunks. By about day 16 days after hatching, the parents feed the young solid food.

The frequency of feeding varies with age. During the first ten days, the parents feed the young about 15 to 25 times per day. As time progresses and the chicks grow, the feeding frequency decreases.

When the nestlings are ready to fledge, the parent vultures feed once or twice a day and may even skip days.

Sources:

Buckley, N. J., B. M. Kluever, R. Driver, and S. A. Rush (2022). Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus), version 2.0. In Birds of the World (P. G. Rodewald and B. K. Keeney, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA.
DeVault, T. L., B. D. Reinhart, I. L. Brisbin Jr., and O. E. Rhodes Jr. (2004). Home ranges of sympatric Black and Turkey vultures in South Carolina. Condor 106:706–711.
Jackson, J. A. (1975). Regurgitative feeding of young Black Vultures in December. Auk 92:802–803.
Jackson, J. A. (1983). Nesting phenology, nest site selection, and reproductive success of Black and Turkey vultures. In Vulture Biology and Management (S. R. Wilbur and J. A. Jackson, Editors). University of California Press, Los Angeles, CA, USA. pp. 245–270.
McHargue, L. A. (1981). Black Vulture nesting, behavior, and growth. Auk 98:182–185.
Novaes, W. G., and R. Cintra (2015). Anthropogenic features influencing the occurrence of Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus) and Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) in an urban area in central Amazonian Brazil. Condor 117:650–659.
Rabenold, P. P. (1986). Family associations in communally roosting Black Vultures. Auk 103(1):32–41.