Many people look down upon birds that eat dead animals, considering it disgusting and a highly unhealthy practice. But little do they know – these birds are actually helping out the environment!
While such birds may look deadly and menacing since they’re associated with the dead, most of them are actually quite gentle. They usually prefer to keep to themselves until provocation.
There are some popular beliefs connecting Vultures to bad omen not only because of the mentioned association, but also due to its black feather color.
Let me tell you, such claims don’t have any sort of basis whatsoever and reading further into this article should tell you how natural of a procedure carrion consumption is among birds.
If you read further into this article, you’ll get to know how many other birds are doing the same thing with dead animals!
Contents
Categories of Birds that Consume Dead Animals
Not all of the birds in nature prefer to eat dead animals and the ones who do enjoy it – they don’t consume at the same degree. Meaning, there are some groups of birds that rely heavily on carrions than other birds. It’s a gradient of bird groups and they are divided into four categories based on their reliance on animal corpses.
True Scavengers
True Scavengers are the major players in the carrion consumption game because dead animals are their primary source of food. These birds rarely hunt down on live prey, only if that target is weak or diseased. Otherwise you’ll find them circling the air around carrion or an animal that’s soon to be dead.
This True Scavenger group includes a total of 23 species. Among them, Vultures and Condors are the most renowned and dominant bird groups. Different species of these groups have shown a knack for eating the dead at different parts of the world.
Opportunistic Scavengers
The group in concern now is much wider than the previous one because the species here aren’t solely focused on dead animals. Rather, they’d hunt or eat other live prey without hesitation. This hunting of live prey and looking for carrions is done simultaneously because both of these are equally their primary food sources.
Opportunistic Scavenger species haven’t been precisely counted but experts believe the number to be within a several hundreds. Birds like Crows, Ravens, Eagles and Caracaras are the leading groups while Magpies, Kites and Storks closely follow along when it comes to adding dead animals to the menu.
Partial Scavengers
These birds have deviated on a foundational level from the True and Opportunistic Scavengers on the grounds that the former don’t value dead animals as primary food sources. At times of crisis or obligations, they might consume carrions but that’s entirely occasional and perceived as a secondary or tertiary source of nutrition.
It may come to you as a shock that certain raptors are part of this group too – the birds who are agile in hunting. Bald Eagles thus show further variance from Golden Eagle in this regard. Additionally, a few corvids and gulls highlight similar seasonal tendencies of dead animal diet.
Insect-Eating Scavengers
The list mainly ends with Partial Scavengers, but there exists a couple of species who are even a notch down from the occasional dead animal eating. This group is called the Insect-eating Scavengers and they specialize in eating dead invertebrates and insects as the primary food source.
Their secondary reliance is on regular dead animals and all of it combined together renders it a truly unique bird group. Greater Roadrunner is one of a kind species who ticks all the boxes mentioned here and is a highly interesting study subject for ornithologists due to the unorthodox preferences.
Dead Animal Eaters: The Bird Family Tree
There are 10 families in the scientific categorization of birds that hold individual species with a love for dead animal feasts. It’s worth noting that the entire family doesn’t show such practices and the extent of carrion consumption can vary within the same family.
Let’s get into the details to learn more about them in an organized manner!
Accipitridae
This is the infamous birds of prey family that come in all sizes. It’s divided into 70 genera and 225 species, showcasing ferocious individual hawks like Red-tailed or Cooper’s alongside many eagles and kites. However, not all of them are dead-eaters and most certainly not True Raptors – except for one group.
Many aren’t aware that the vultures are divided into two worlds: the Old and the New. All of the species in the Old World belong to this family and a lot of them are prime lovers of carrion. Most of these vultures live in Europe, Asia and Africa. The latter continent sees numerous vulture deaths in the hands of poachers who poison dead animals to kill off these birds.
Corvidae
The Corvidae family plays host to 135 unique species divided under 47 genera. Crows, Ravens, Blackbirds, Magpies are the ones who populate the family at a larger scale than the others. However, three of the four mentioned birds have a taste for carcass every now and then – leaving out Blackbirds from the list.
Carrion isn’t their main ingredient at mealtimes but it does make a large portion of their overall meal. These birds are usually omnivorous as they rarely let any food material go astray. Their food tastes depend on their locality and unlike vultures, these birds don’t generally go out seeking for dead animals to feast upon.
Cathartidae
This is the family of the New World Vultures with a total of 7 species – 5 of which are Vultures and 2 are Condors. These birds are the prime subscribers of dead animal eating as this is their most desired source of food. When it comes to the visual similarities with the Old World Vultures, there exist no genealogical connection, rather an evolutionary transition toward similarity.
While both of these worlds of birds search for carrions vigorously, the New World species utilize their superior sense of smell to detect carcasses. The Old World species have to rely heavily on eyesight since they lack such natural ability of detecting scent.
Pandionidae
Ospreys are the only species under the family of Pandionidae and this bird depends mostly on fish consumption. Although rare, there have been a few documented accounts of Ospreys consuming carrions but this is not their natural way to go about dieting. The only two dead animals that were seen being consumed by Ospreys are White-tailed Deer and Virginia Opossum.
Falconidae
The whole Falconidae family is made up of 65 species of Falcons and Caracaras. These birds of prey don’t grow up to be as large as the Accipitridae species at their maximum size, but can match the height of the medium-sized raptors.
When it comes to eating the dead, this practice is usually noticed in the Caracaras, especially the species of Crested Caracara. They are often seen sharing their feast with Vultures. A pattern of anomaly has developed in Grey Falcons where this bird tends to consume carrion upon diverging from its kin.
Struthionidae
The Struthionidae is the family of Ostriches – one genus of which keeps the extinct species while the other categorizes the flightless birds we see today. Only two species of Ostriches are alive today and both of them often pick at carrions to scavenge for food. For most of the cases, it occurs when other animals are done with the dead animal and this bird rummages through the leftovers.
Sturnidae
Starling birds are the title representatives of the Sturnidae family. The genera and species categorization is quite tricky for the bird with around 30 genera classified as of this moment. Out of these, a few of the species show enough desperation of munching into dead animal meat if they’re forced to.
Basically, these birds are omnivorous and can digest a wide array of food on their palette. Tricky situations like lack of food sources makes them eat even baby birds at times. Usual meat is tough and heavy for their tiny beaks, thus decomposing carrion is what they seek refuge in during such hard times.
Threskiornithidae
This family is the holder of some large sized birds who require some water body to flourish comfortably. The two subfamilies are Ibis and Spoonbill – both of which groups have some omnivore species with developed taste for dead animals.
For instance, Red-Naped Ibis is a common carrion consumer with Sacred Ibis is a close second in terms of frequency and priority. Out of the 36 birds in this family, around one-third of them act as Opportunistic or Partial Scavengers from time to time.
Ardeidae
The Ardeidae family is commonly known as Heron – the white, majestic, tall bird living in freshwater coasts. These birds have been categorized as Opportunistic Scavengers despite dead animals not being a part of their primary source of diet, leaning closer to the Partial Scavenger group.
Herons and Egrets generally prefer fish to be their first priority diet and hunting those down is part of their nature. However, ornithologists have discovered a few of the species like Grey Heron to be eating carrion and regarded such incidents to be very unique. It has to do more with their carnivorous nature than the love for carcass consumption.
Anatidae
All the water fowls like ducks, geese and swans are placed under this family of Anatidae. There still exists many debates regarding the food materials a duck can actually eat. But only a handful of such species from this family have eaten dead animals on rare occasions. These are the times such activities have been observed, there could be more out in wilderness that we are yet to know about.
How Much Nutrition Do Birds Get from Dead Animals?
Upon learning about these birds and their family tradition of eating dead animals, it’s natural for one to wonder whether such food contains any nutritional value. As a matter of fact, they do carry nutrients and the following breakdown can tell you exactly how much that is.
Protein: Primarily, carrions contain tons of protein even when the process of decomposing is going on. This protein is essential for muscle retention, feather growth and generating overall strength for the bird.
Fat: On many carcasses, there still remains tons of fat content for birds to take in. Fat is essential for maintaining a bird’s day to day physical activities. Apart from providing fuel for the muscles, this keeps the birds warm and contented during winter.
Vitamins: Vitamins don’t really last long on a dead animal body. But the minimal amount that a bird can obtain helps them out in their immunity, reproduction and bone health.
Minerals: Minerals always remain within carrions and certain minerals help birds out in physiological factors. From strengthening egg shells to rendering the bones stronger, minerals like Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Potassium etc. are available from such resources.
Microorganisms: Some birds draw great benefit from bacteria that grows in a decapitated animal body. Such microorganisms aid in their digestive system if the bird is equipped with necessary hormones and acids to process these.
Water: Finally, an animal carcass can be a source of water that hydrates a bird in dry areas. Vultures and Condors around desert regions are therefore reliant on finding dead animal bodies to quench their thirst and survive in those harsh conditions.
FAQ
Some more interesting facts about carrion-eating birds are unveiled in this section by addressing the most frequent queries by interested netizens.
Q: What are some of the common birds that eat dead animals?
Ans: Vultures, Condors, Ravens, Crows, Magpies, Marabou Storks, Eagles, Black Kites, Caracaras are the most common with the habit of eating dead animals. These aren’t the only birds to do so but they’re seen at a higher frequency running this practice.
Q: How do carrion-eating birds contribute to a cleaner ecosystem?
Ans: A dead animal body is filled with pathogens, toxins and numerous bacteria eating at the flesh and helps it decompose. But during the process, the carcass harms the surrounding environment by remaining as a threat to the ecosystem. Carrion-eating birds consume the meat and reduce the volume & time of decomposition – rendering the ecosystem much cleaner than it would’ve been.
Q: Why do vultures eat dead animals?
Ans: Vultures are built in such a way by nature that they aren’t equipped with necessary hunting skills against large animals. Rather, their gift is the ability to find a dead animal with enhanced senses and neutralize any toxin or pathogen inside their stomach. The stomach is strongly built and required acid produced inside can remove almost every health hazard from a carrion.
Final Take: Can Eating Dead Animals be Fatal for Birds?
Since carrions are dead animals in the process of decomposition, it’s not really the healthiest option for a bird’s consumption. Because such entities contain different types of fungi and bacteria – pathogens that have a high possibility of causing harm to the host body.
Some of these carcasses are contaminated with additional poisoning and this can lead to the consuming bird’s death. If not, certain physical issues, diseases and digestion troubles isn’t something very uncommon.
True Scavenger birds have developed adaptability to the common pathogens and their stomach automatically produces strong acids and other means to neutralize these. But this adaptability isn’t always sufficient and not all of the birds with such a taste bud are equipped with it.
So in short, YES, it can be fatal at times but it all depends on the factors you’ve read so far.
