Чёрный гриф: Экология и особенности вида.

New World vulture

The black vulture (Coragyps atratus), also known as the American black vulture, Mexican vulture, zopilote, urubu, or gallinazo, is a bird in the New World vulture family whose range extends from the southeastern United States to Perú, Central Chile and Uruguay in South America. Although a common and widespread species, it has a somewhat more restricted distribution than its compatriot, the turkey vulture, which breeds well into Canada and all the way south to Tierra del Fuego. It is the only extant member of the genus Coragyps, which is in the family Cathartidae. Despite the similar name and appearance, this species is not closely related to the Eurasian black vulture, an Old World vulture, of the family Accipitridae (which includes raptors like the eagles, hawks, kites, and harriers). For ease of locating animal corpses (their main source of sustenance), black vultures tend to inhabit relatively open areas with scattered trees, such as chaparral, in addition to subtropical forested areas and parts of the Brazilian pantanal. With a wingspan of , the black vulture is an imposing bird, though relatively small for a vulture, let alone a raptor. It has black plumage, a featherless, grayish black head and neck, and a short, hooked beak. These features are all evolutionary adaptations to life as a scavenger; their black plumage stays visibly cleaner than that of a lighter colored bird, the bare head is designed for easily digging inside animal carcasses, and the hooked beak is built for stripping the bodies clean of meat. The absence of head feathers helps the birds stay clean and remain (more or less) free of animal blood and bodily fluids, which could become problematic for the vultures and attract parasites; most vultures are known to bathe after eating, provided there is a water source. This water source can be natural or man made, such as a stream or a livestock water tank. The black vulture is a scavenger and feeds on carrion, but will also eat eggs, small reptiles, or small newborn animals (livestock such as cattle, or deer, rodents, rabbits, etc. ), albeit very rarely. They will also opportunistically prey on extremely weakened, sick, elderly, or otherwise vulnerable animals. In areas populated by humans, it also scavenges at dumpster sites and garbage dumps. It finds its meals either by using its keen eyesight or by following other (New World) vultures, which all possess a keen sense of smell. Lacking a syrinx—the vocal organ of birds—its only vocalizations are grunts or low hisses. It lays its eggs in caves, in cliffside rock crevasses, dead and hollow trees or, in the absence of predators, on the bare ground, generally raising two chicks each year. The parents feed their young by regurgitation from their crop, an additional digestive organ unique to birds, used for storing excess food; their “infant formula”, of sorts, is thus called “crop milk”. In the United States, the vulture receives legal protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 despite the fact it does not migrate whatsoever. This vulture also appeared in Mayan codices.

The American naturalist William Bartram wrote of the black vulture in his 1791 book Bartram's Travels, calling it Vultur atratus "black vulture" or "carrion crow". Bartram's work has been rejected for nomenclatoríal purposes by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature as the author did not consistently use the system of binomial nomenclature. The German ornithologist Johann Matthäus Bechstein formally described the species using the same name in 1793 in his translation of John Latham's A General Synopsis of Birds. The common name "vulture" is derived from the Latin word vulturus, which means "tearer" and is a reference to its feeding habits. The species name, ātrātus, means "clothed in black", from the Latin āter 'dull black'. Vieillot defined the genus Catharista in 1816, listing as its type C. urubu. French naturalist Emmanuel Le Maout placed in its current genus Coragyps (as C. urubu) in 1853. Isidore Geoffroy Saint Hilaire has been listed as the author in the past, but he did not publish any official description. The genus name means "raven vulture", from a contraction of the Greek corax/κόραξ and gyps/γὺψ for the respective birds. The American Ornithologists' Union used the name Catharista atrata initially, before adopting Vieillot's name (Catharista urubu) in their third edition. By their fourth edition, they had adopted the current name. The black vulture is basal (the earliest offshoot) to a lineage that gave rise to the turkey vulture and greater and lesser yellow headed vultures, diverging around 12 million years ago. Martin Lichtenstein described C. a. foetens, the Andean black vulture, in 1817, and Charles Lucien Bonaparte described C. a. brasiliensis, from Central and South America, in 1850 on the basis of smaller size and minor plumage differences. However it has been established that the change between the three subspecies is clinal (that is, there is no division between the subspecies), and hence they are no longer recognised. "American black vulture" is also commonly used,

From the Early to the Late Pleistocene, a prehistoric species of black vulture, C. occidentalis, known as the Pleistocene black vulture or—somewhat in error—the "western black vulture", occurred across the present species' range. This bird did not differ much from the black vulture of today except in size; it was some 10–15% larger, and had a relatively flatter and wider bill. It filled a similar ecological niche as the living form but fed on larger animals, and was previously thought to have evolved into it by decreasing in size during the last ice age. However, a 2022 genetic study found C. occidentalis to be nested within the South American clade of black vultures; C. occidentalis had evolved from the modern black vulture about 400,000 years ago and developed a larger and more robust body size when it colonized high altitude environments. C. occidentalis may have interacted with humans; a subfossil bone of the extinct species was found in a Paleo Indian to Early Archaic (9000–8000 years BCE) midden at Five Mile Rapids near The Dalles, Oregon. Fossil (or subfossil) black vultures cannot necessarily be attributed to the Pleistocene or the recent species without further information: the same size variation found in the living bird was also present in its larger prehistoric relative. Thus, in 1968, Hildegarde Howard separated the Mexican birds as C. occidentalis mexicanus as opposed to the birds from locations farther north (such as Rancho La Brea) which constituted the nominate subspecies C. o. occidentalis. The southern birds were of the same size as present day northern black vultures and can only be distinguished by their somewhat stouter tarsometatarsus and the flatter and wider bills, and even then only with any certainty if the location where the fossils were found is known. As the Pleistocene and current black vultures form an evolutionary continuum rather than splitting into two or more lineages, some include the Pleistocene taxa in C. atratus, which is further affirmed by phylogenetic studies indicating that it forms a clade within the South American C. atratus.

The black vulture is a fairly large scavenger, measuring in length, with a wingspan. Weight for black vultures from North America and the Andes ranges from but in the smaller vultures of the tropical lowlands it is The extended wing bone measures , the shortish tail measures and the relatively long tarsus measures The legs are grayish white, The wings are broad but relatively short. The bases of the primary feathers are white, producing a white patch on the underside of the wing's edge, which is visible in flight. The tail is short and square, barely reaching past the edge of the folded wings. A leucistic C. atratus brasiliensis was observed in Piñas, Ecuador in 2005. It had white plumage overall, with only the tarsus and tail as well as some undertail feathers being black. It was not an albino as its skin seemed to have had the normal, dark color and it was part of a flock of some twenty normally plumaged individuals.

The black vulture has a Nearctic and Neotropic distribution. Its range includes the mid Atlantic States, the southernmost regions of the Midwestern United States, the southern United States, Mexico, Central America and most of South America. It is usually a permanent resident throughout its range, although birds at the extreme north of its range may migrate short distances, and others across their range may undergo local movements in unfavourable conditions. In South America, its range stretches to Peru, central Chile and Uruguay. It also is found as a vagrant on the islands of the Caribbean.

The black vulture soars high while searching for food, holding its wings horizontally when gliding. It flaps in short bursts which are followed by short periods of gliding. Its flight is less efficient than that of other vultures, as the wings are not as long, forming a smaller wing area. In comparison with the turkey vulture, the black vulture flaps its wings more frequently during flight. It is known to regurgitate when approached or disturbed, which assists in predator deterrence and taking flight by decreasing its takeoff weight. Like all New World vultures, the black vulture often defecates on its own legs, using the evaporation of the water in the feces and/or urine to cool itself, a process known as urohidrosis. It cools the blood vessels in the unfeathered tarsi and feet, and causes white uric acid to streak the legs. Because it lacks a syrinx, the black vulture, like other New World vultures, has very few vocalization capabilities. Like the turkey vulture, this vulture is often seen standing in a spread winged stance. Both parents incubate the eggs, which hatch after 28 to 41 days.

In natural settings, the black vulture eats mainly carrion. In areas populated by humans, it may scavenge at garbage dumps for refuse, offal and other discarded edible waste, but also takes eggs, fruit (both ripe and rotting), fish, dung and ripe/decomposing plant material and can kill or injure newborn or incapacitated mammals. Like other vultures, it plays an important role in the ecosystem by disposing of carrion which would otherwise be a breeding ground for disease. These vultures—the turkey vulture, the lesser yellow headed vulture, and the greater yellow headed vulture—forage by detecting the scent of ethyl mercaptan, a gas produced by the beginnings of decay in dead animals. Their heightened ability to detect odors allows them to search for carrion below the forest canopy. The black vulture is aggressive when feeding, and may chase the slightly larger turkey vulture from carcasses. Black vultures have sometimes been observed removing and eating ticks from resting capybaras and Baird's tapir (Tapirus bairdii). These vultures are known to kill baby herons and seabirds on nesting colonies, and feed on domestic ducks, small birds, skunks, opossums, other small mammals, lizards, small snakes, young turtles and insects. Like other birds with scavenging habits, the black vulture presents resistance to pathogenic microorganisms and their toxins. Many mechanisms may explain this resistance. Anti microbial agents may be secreted by the liver or gastric epithelium, or produced by microorganisms of the normal microbiota of the species.

It receives special legal protections under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 in the United States, by the Convention for the Protection of Migratory Birds in Canada, and by the Convention for the Protection of Migratory Birds and Game Mammals in Mexico. It is listed as a species of Least Concern by the IUCN Red List. Populations appear to remain stable, and it has not reached the threshold of inclusion as a threatened species, which requires a decline of more than 30% in ten years or three generations. The droppings produced by black vultures can harm or kill trees and other vegetation. As a defense, the vultures also “regurgitate a reeking and corrosive vomit." The bird can be a threat to the safety of aerial traffic, especially when it congregates in large numbers in the vicinity of garbage dumps—as is the case in the Rio de Janeiro Tom Jobim International Airport. The black vulture can be held in captivity, though the Migratory Bird Treaty Act only allows this in the case of animals which are injured or unable to return to the wild. Black vultures are an important cultural symbol in Lima, Peru. This vulture has appeared on two stamps: those of Suriname in 1990 and Nicaragua in 1994.