Hawks and vultures are often used in the same sentence because they share a number of commonalities. Well, it is only inevitable, since they are both the infamous birds-of-prey.
They are also called raptors. Raptors are notorious for their razor-sharp talons, massive wings, and a merciless look in their eyes. Whether a prey is alive or dead, these birds of prey want it on their plate. So, how do you tell these hawk vs vulture gangsters apart?
The secret lies in certain physical features and behavioral variation. Without further ado, let’s take a glimpse through the mysterious life of hawks and vultures.
Contents
Overview of Raptors
Also known as birds of prey, these killers on wings hunt vertebrates, like mammals and other birds, and then feed on them. The raptors are known for their keen eyesight, sharp talons on their feet, and hooked beaks to tear the flesh apart from the skeletal remains. Other than hawks and vultures, other birds of prey include but not limited to, eagles, condors and falcons.
The term “raptor’ comes from a Latin word “rapio” which means “to seize by force’’, a term that fits them best. Birds of prey have been divided into 3 different orders of birds namely Accipitriformes, Falconiformes, and Cariamiformes. The visual acuity of raptors is known to be the best among vertebrates, even better than humans. They use their sense of smell too.
Introducing Hawk and Vulture
Among the three orders mentioned previously, hawks and Old World vultures belong to the order called Accipitriformes, and family Accipitridae. New World vultures, that are found only in North and South America, belong to a different family called Cathartidae. The Cathartidae family members are sometimes categorized into a fourth different order namely Cathartiiformes.
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There are 23 living species of vultures in this world, including condors. The Old World vultures, that are found in Africa, Europe and Asia, have 16 species governed by it, and the New World one has 7 species under it. Vultures have a characteristic bald or unfeathered head, which helps them in thermoregulation. Vultures have a brown, white and gray plumage mostly.
Hawks are found almost everywhere, except Antarctica. Hawks belong to the same family as vultures, that is, Accipitridae. Therefore, they are cousins and surely will have a few commonalities that we will explore very soon. There is a subfamily of hawks called the Accipiters that include sparrowhawks, and a separate Buteo group, also called buzzards.
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The Accipiter group are woodland birds that have broad wings and long tails, and excellent visual acuity. Their hunting tactic includes ambush attacks. The Buteo group of America, on the other hand, look much sturdier with larger wings, and they hunt by openly pouncing on the prey. They all are known to be incredibly intelligent and fordimably alert and ruthless.
Vulture vs Hawk: Similarities
Vultures and hawks are known as formidable creatures of the wilderness. Birds that can feed on carcasses have more privileges in the animal world, as far as survival is concerned.
Both hawks and vultures feed on carrion which is basically flesh of nearly dead or already dead animals. These animals could be other birds or mammals. Vultures, being larger birds, with a voracious appetite, tend to feed on the carrion of large carcasses, like dead elephants.
Both these avians have excellent eyesight, and strong talons and beaks, to locate their prey, hold them, and tear their flesh off their remains. Both the birds have 4-toed feet, where the toes are facing forward, and one is facing backward. This helps them to perch and grasp.
If you notice the plumage color of these birds, you will realize the colors are quite subtle–white, black, gray, and brown being the dominant hues. Do they need an attractive body, since they already are the owners of such a frightening personality?
Hawk vs Vulture: Difference Table
This difference table will give you a glimpse through the variations, in advance.
| Features | Hawk | Vulture |
| Size | Smaller, shorter | Larger, taller |
| Head | Full-feathered head | Bald head |
| Posture | Straight | Hunched |
| Diet | Live animals | Carcasses |
| Flight | Flap their wings | Mainly soar and glide |
| Social Behavior | Solitary | Usually in a flock |
Vulture vs Hawk: Physical Differences
The vengeful look in a vulture’s eyes, together with its hunch-backed posture, make vultures unpredictable and merciless. The sharp talons on hawk’s feet make prey tremble in fear. Keep reading to know more about the amazing features of these two birds.
Size
One of the best ways to tell vultures and hawks apart, is to shed light on their body size. Vultures are much taller, larger and heavier than hawks.
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Vultures are large creatures, and their bodies could measure up to 1 meter in length! They weigh 27 to 28 pounds on average, with a wingspan that can reach to 3 meters. Andean condors, that are actually New World vultures, are the largest among vultures and also the largest bird of prey in the world. They weigh 33 lbs, and have a wingspan of 10 feet!
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Hawks appear much humbler looking when compared with vultures, but no less superior by any means. They are 0.5 meters long, which makes them horizontally shorter by 50% than the vultures. They weigh 2 to 4 pounds, and their wingspan ranges between 1 and 2 meters. The largest known hawk in North America is the Ferruginous hawk.
Head
Vultures have bald heads, whereas hawks have feathered heads.
This feature can be easily located on a bird’s body even from a distance, and is an effective tool to tell vultures apart from hawks. Hawks have fully-feathered heads and resemble a typical bird’s head. On the other hand, the heads of vultures are featherless. There are always exceptions, and in this case it is the bearded vulture. It has orange colored feathers on its head.
Lack of feathers on the head provides vultures with a number of benefits. While they are feeding, there is a less chance of pieces of dead flesh getting caught in their head or eyes, thus preventing skin infection. Bald head has also been associated with thermoregulation.
Posture
The silhouette of a vulture resembles that of an old, hunched man, whereas hawks look more erect.
From the side, vultures have a hunched posture, with their large heads and long necks depressed within the cradles of their shoulders. From the front, they demonstrate a V-shape because of this huddled-up stance.
Hawks on the other hand, look more erect and sleek. Vultures also appear to look a little unkempt, as if they are not fully ready for their after-dinner get-together. On the contrary, hawks always look quite put together.
For instance, Cooper’s hawks, with their black bars against the white background of their chest, and not to mention their back-brushed head, look quite poised and elegant.
Plumage
Hawks have dark spots, bars and streaks on their body; vultures have a more solid black-white-brown appearance.
The plumage on a vulture’s body is more monochromatic, and has less patterns and textures of different colors. Their flight wings, necks and underparts are usually of a solid, dark black, brown or bluish-gray, accompanied with white underparts. However, certain vultures, like king vultures, have golden brown and pinkish hues on their necks, with orange-pink wattles and beaks.
Hawks, on the contrary, are known and recognised for the signature streaks on their chest, wings and tails. They flaunt white streaks and dark spots on their legs and breast region.
The red-shouldered hawks have amazing white streaks on brown bodies, and the red-tailed hawks have eye-catching white accents on their wings and tails. Gray hawks, through mostly white-and-gray in appearance, have black streaks on their gray chests.
Neck, Beak and Tails
Vultures have longer, hunch-backed necks, larger beaks and shorter tails. Hawks, on the contrary, do not have a well-defined neck, and have smaller beaks and longer tails.
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The necks of vultures, like their heads, are featherless. There are no spots or streaks, and definitely much thinner and longer than the necks of hawks. They also have a ruff of long feathers on their neck. Additionally, they have large, bulging beaks that are yellow or orange-red in color. They are used to tear flesh from the body of carcasses. Their tails are shorter.
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Hawks’ necks are so short that they are almost non-existent. The necks are fully feather-covered, with spots or streaks present on them. Inside their black-colored beaks are tomial teeth that help them to tear flesh from live prey, but their beaks are much smaller than vulture’s beaks. They have longer tails, with bars and streaks on them.
Feet and Talons
Hawks have more powerful claws, whereas vultures have more muscular feet.
Paired with large, hooked beaks, the muscular feet of vultures make a formidable weapon to scissor out flesh from a carcass. The claws are indeed straighter and smaller than other birds of prey, like the hawks. In fact, turkey vultures have weak feet and blunt talons. The talons are black in color, and the feet could be pink, gray or fully black.
This largely depends on their feeding habits— let’s not forget the fact that vultures do not hunt live prey. Instead, they scavenge on what is left of a dead body. Dead flesh is already a bit softer than flesh of a living animal, thus tearing off non-living tissues does not require large talons.
Hawk’s claws are much more powerful because they hunt living animals and require a larger tearing force. The talons are larger and more curved than those of vultures. Feet could be yellow and talons are black. Their legs are feathered, sometimes covered up to the toes.
Behavioral And Habitat Differences
Not only do vultures and hawks display physical differences, but there are some notable behavioral nuances between them that will help you further.
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Diet and Hunting Style
Vultures usually prefer to eat flesh of recently dead animals, whereas hawks prefer to hunt animals, kill them and feed on them.
Though vultures eat carrion, they prefer the carrion to belong to a recently deceased animal rather than a decaying body. They also attack sick and wounded animals, and keep circling overhead as if waiting for the injured or unhealthy creature to perish.
Cattle animals like cows, pigs and lamb are their usual target, but occasionally they also eat ostrich eggs. In general, vultures will aim to feed on dead bodies of any creature.
Vultures have excellent eyesight. It has been observed that vultures can sight carcasses from 4 miles away provided that the body is at least 3 feet long. But even though they have outstanding visual acuity, they rely more on their sense of smell to spot carcasses. Dead bodies give off ethyl mercaptan gas that vultures can pick up from hundreds of meters away.
So why don’t vultures get sick because of such an unhealthy diet? That’s because they have an extremely acidic environment, around pH 1, inside their digestive system that resists the growth of any harmful bacteria or other microbes that may cause diseases like botulism, cholera or anthrax. They also utilize urohidrosis as a cooling mechanism.
Between dead or live animals, hawks would prefer the latter without a second thought. Unlike the vultures, hawks prefer to hunt down live prey, kill them and then feed on their flesh. The red-tailed hawks, for instance, observe the prey from high up a tree or from a distance, then jump dive when the prey is most vulnerable, then finally grab the startled prey to their den.
Hawks feed on squirrels, rabbits, small birds, rodents, and also frogs and insects. As they do not feed on carcasses that much so they do not have extensive adaptations in their gut system. Inexperienced or sick hawks may eat carrion sometimes. They may gobble up bones, feathers and fur too, but then they vomit indigestible remains out.
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Wings and Flight Style
Hawks fly, vultures glide.
Hawks move around by flapping their wings mostly, but they also know how to soar and glide by using the momentum generated by flapping the wings. They have lean and streamlined wings for greater agility and stamina. They have dark bars on the inside of their wings, edged in white.
Vultures glide and soar, more than flapping the wings. Turkey vultures barely flap their wings. Vulture has massive V-shaped wings, with overlapping layers of feathers. To add, the feathers are quite unkempt, which increases air resistance. They spread their wings, flap a few times, and then soar using air thermals and drafts. They can circle in the air for hours at a stretch.
Eyesight
Hawks and vultures both have excellent eyesight, but vultures use their sense of smell more than sense of sight.
Vultures have a keen eyesight but they cannot move their eye-balls independently of one another. They are held in place by a bony structure called sclerotic rings that keep both the eyes focused on only one object at a time. This allows them to scan depth and distance like a pro. They however, swivel their heads from side to side to focus in different directions.
Vultures have their retinas densely packed with photoreceptors, so they have excellent vision. However, some species have more photoreceptors than others. Turkey vultures, as an instance, have weaker vision than black vultures.
Hawks are tetrachromats, meaning they are endowed with 4 types of color receptors in the eye that allow them to detect polarized light and magnetic fields. They have 1 million photoreceptors per mm square of their retina, whereas, in humans, the number stands at only 200,000.
Habitat
Vultures like to live in open areas, whereas hawks like forests too.
Be it sand-covered deserts or grass-enriched savannahs, be it open country or a shrubby wasteland– vultures adore venturing in open spaces because it is the easiest to spot carcasses there.
Hawks like the same places also, but they are more adapted to living in myriads of habitats. They prefer tall trees and the edge of forests too.
Social behavior
Vultures are quite friendly and love to flock around, whereas hawks are more solitary.
Though vultures look grumpy and old-fashioned, they are quite friendly and prefer to forage in flocks. Each flock or committee consists of around 30 members where they do everything together. However, they do not make much noise and are found to grunt and hiss rather than make bird sounds. During courtship, they encircle the female with their wings outspread.
Hawks like to live a solitary lifestyle and flock only during the breeding season. They make sounds like “keee–arrrgh” that are loud and hoarse, quite unlike vultures. During courtship, males perform a sky-dance called “talon-drop” where they swish past each of the females, trying to touch each other’s talons. The red-tailed hawks display such courtship mannerisms.
Interesting Facts About Vulture and Hawk
Ever guessed that vultures, being much larger than hawks, could be afraid of hawks? Know this and much more in this segment of interesting features about hawks and vultures.
A hawk is speedier than a vulture. Speed of a hawk could range between 160 and 190 km/hr, whereas that of a vulture stays limited to 50 to 60 km/hr.
Females hawks are larger and stronger than male hawks. On the other hand, male and female vultures look identically similar.
A vulture stays away from other birds of prey, like the eagles and hawks because they are afraid of being mobbed by large groups of birds-of-prey.
When vultures feel threatened, they vomit. The regurgitated content is corrosively acidic and keeps threats at bay. Also, they do that to lighten themselves so that flight is easier.
Vultures keep eating until their crops bulge. Then they sit sleepily in a corner to digest their food.
Thoughts
Hawks and vultures are ferocious birds-of-prey that dominate the wild avian world. Their formidable beaks and talons, large wings, and the merciless look in their eyes, leave no doubt in the prey’s mind that death is imminent.
Their size, head and posture will help you to tell them apart. Also, their diet, habitat choice, and social behavior will assist you to walk through the labyrinth of similarities to discover their uniqueness.
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