Turkey Vulture flew into the outside window sill

[lunagardens]

About 7:30 am, this turkey vulture flew into the big window sill. It was as though it was already falling before it hit. It did not mind me getting close for pictures but low to the ground flew away when my daughter went out the door to school. Flew to the woods across the road and joined the others. It seems injured- wings not able to let it fly very high.

There is a group just hanging out with it. The others are almost keeping an eye on it, as though they are keeping watch. It is an adult- obviously.
I went back out to get another picture while it perched on a big rock, when it flew to a tree-thats when I noticed the wing feathers looked frayed/roughed up.
Do I have to worry about these guys going after the chickens in their pen? i read they like dead carcass but if hungry enough they may go for the smaller prey.
I find their behavior interesting.
Just to note- they have been circling above those woods for the last few days so am not sure if this is a mating thing or not.

[lunagardens]

There is a busier road just off street. The deer cross from those woods over that road to get to the woods and marsh on the other side. They are making it into a trail park soon, so i'm not sure if the guys doing their surveys and such are disturbing the wild life over there. It seems I have seen more wild life (deer families,foxes, coyote's, and now turkey vultures since they started messing around over there.
i do not see the vulture anymore. It was up in a dead tree sunning a little while ago. I see it's friends circling the woods now.
Just thought it was strange behavior myself. I thought at first hit, that my americauna got out and was trying to perch on the second floor window from the porch.(we have a split level that goes into the hillside. the bottom is the basement and the top the living area. You have to come up 3 patterns of steps to get to the front porch.)
I called a wildlife rescue and they said if it came back and appeared injured-unable to fly right- to give them another call. No reason to traipse in the woods looking.
I think I will go exploring in the woods this summer. The owner is never around and the neighbor's kid goes in there for his ummm "smoke". being high on the porch and the wind is right, i can always smell it.lol..

[MelissaW]

Poor guy! I'm guessing you live fairly close to me. They just returned to my county last Wednesday. If you don't have a regular large group in your area (we see as many as 35 circling at one time on a regular basis here), they may be a traveling group stopping for a feed and a rest on their way north. Maybe he was injured on the trip. I've never had one fly really low near the house here. I also have never had one go after a live chicken in many, many years of keeping them. The only time they have ever eaten my poultry is when a dog of some kind (fox, coyote, or domestic, not sure), killed my whole flock of ducks in one night. I knew they were all gone the minute the sun came up and I saw those vultures landing near the pond. Hopefully he was just stunned, and will regain his strength. I've had some little birds hit the window, then spend the whole day recovering in the flower beds, only to fly away as though nothing happened before nightfall. Good thing he didn't break your window! Those birds are BIG.

[nathan104]

We have a large vulture nest in a pile of dead trees in the woods behind my house. If you think they are ugly full grown, you should see them as babies, covered in white fur like feathers from head to toe. Ive never seen then eat anything that wasnt already dead. They clean up roadkill from the road. Sometimes they are slow to get out of the way of an oncomming car and maybe yours got clipped and then was try to fly away but ended up into your window. Hopefully it will clear it head, straighten its feathers and be good as new.

[bugstabber]

There is a group that lives in town, they hang out on a water tower.

[JasoninMN]

They will nest on rock ledges, maybe your upper deck looked like a potential spot till it hit the window.....

[lunagardens]

I have not seen it since yesterday afternoon. its buddies are no where to be seen now. Hopefully all turned out well.

[Rowenna7]

I've heard that turkey vultures will not touch anything that is still living...however, I've heard that there is another vulture species (I think they are called black vultures) that are more common in the south will actually go after still-living animals. Does anyone know more about this? This has been an interesting thread to read!