King vulture

Sarcoramphus papa · The king vulture is a large New World vulture living in tropical lowland forests from southern Mexico to northern Argentina.

King vulture
Photo: Olaf Oliviero Riemer, CC BY-SA 3.0
King vulture
Photo: Photograph by Chris Down, CC BY 4.0
King vulture
Photo: Paolo Costa Baldi, CC BY-SA 3.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassAves
OrderAccipitriformes
FamilyCathartidae
GenusSarcoramphus
SpeciesSarcoramphus papa

Where it lives

Lowland tropical forests from southern Mexico to northern Argentina.

Fun facts

  • Its bald head and neck can flash yellow, orange, blue, purple, or red, topped with a striking orange fleshy caruncle on its beak.
  • It cools itself down through urohidrosis — defecating directly on its own legs.
  • Despite being huge and strong-billed, it always steps aside for the even larger Andean condor at a shared carcass.
  • It has no voice box, so it can only croak, wheeze during courtship, and snap its bill when threatened instead of calling out.

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The King vulture was the creature in Birder on November 9, 2026. Can you identify tomorrow's from its photos? Every day brings a new creature to place from kingdom to genus, map and name.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).