Vultures - Spooky Birds for Halloween

Carrion Eaters That Inspire Dark Superstition and Mythology

Oct 19, 2008 Rosemary Drisdelle

Large birds that eat carrion, vultures have been reviled for centuries. They're connected to death, bad luck, and Hell. Look for them at Halloween.

Does Count Dracula look more like a bat or a vulture? Though typically associated with the vampire bat, an undead vampire is often portrayed wearing a flowing black cape with a wide stand-up collar and is typically clean-shaven; bloodsucking tendencies aside, a vampire does look very like a vulture. As a matter of fact, in the animated film Transylvania 6-5000, featuring Bugs Bunny and Count Bloodcount (Warner Bros., 1963), the vampire is turned into a two-headed vulture at the end.

Vultures are Appropriate Halloween Birds

Vultures are rather grotesque looking birds with a sinister reputation. Like crows and ravens, they have a number of characteristics that make them obvious symbols for Halloween:

The classic vulture is dark brown or black with a bald or down-covered neck and head and a powerful hooked beak. The bare skin is often pink or red, and wrinkled.
Vultures are scavengers – carrion birds that feast on the decaying flesh of dead animals lying in the open. Their bald heads allow them to feed without fouling feathers.
These birds are known to congregate in battlefields after a battle, and feast on both the dead and the wounded.
Before descending to feed on a corpse, some species gather ominously in nearby trees as though waiting for more birds to arrive.
Vultures have a disquieting ability to find a corpse very quickly, and to gather in numbers that seem larger than the known local population—this has given rise to the belief that they have an extraordinary sense of smell and a prescience of death. (A few species do have a keen sense of smell but most rely on their excellent eyesight.)
Some vultures roost communally at night, and some form large nesting colonies—a disturbing gathering to stumble upon, especially in the dark.

Vultures in Myth, Superstition, and Folklore

Vultures live around the world where winters are relatively mild. Many cultures recognize their importance in clearing away the bodies of dead animals and some even seek their assistance in disposing of human remains, but vultures have also attracted negative superstition and myth:

Ancient philosophers Aristotle and Pliny both thought the birds were bad luck.
Persian (ancient Iran) lore has it that two giant vultures stand guard at the gates of Hell.
People of ancient Greece and Assyria thought that vultures were the descendants of griffins (half eagle, half lion) and that they guarded wisdom about life and death.
Vultures were a symbol of power in Egypt, and were associated with various Gods, thus they were regarded with fear by the common people.

Vultures Today

Many vulture species are declining due to persecution, loss of habitat, and accidental poisonings (toxic drugs and poisons in the bodies of dead animals, and lead contamination). One, the California Condor, became extinct in the wild, but is being reintroduced. Elegant in their own way, we need these scavengers in a healthy environment.

…and they make excellent Halloween decorations.

Related Content:

Barn Owl - One of Our Halloween Birds

Sources:

Birds in Legend Fable and Folklore. Ingersoll, Ernest. New York: Longmans, Green and Co.; 1923

Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Perrins, Christopher ed. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2003

Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America. Floyd, Ted. New York: HarperCollins; 2008.

The copyright of the article Vultures - Spooky Birds for Halloween in Birds is owned by Rosemary Drisdelle. Permission to republish Vultures - Spooky Birds for Halloween in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Vulture Profile