Shared Skies: Black Vultures and Aviation Safety in Central America

Black Vultures, Sunset, Pacific Coast, Nicaragua (Photo: Noel Cox)

This evening, November 11, just before sunset on Nicaragua’s Pacific coast, I’d just finished a good run and a refreshing swim, still catching my breath, when I spotted them, a group of black vultures hunched over a fresh fish carcass on the sand. Their dark forms stood out against the fading light. Watching them reminded me of my days on the Bird Safety Committee at the international airport.

It was one of several committees I served on over the years, the kind of behind-the-scenes effort that often goes unnoticed but plays an important role in keeping airports safe. I was particularly interested in this one because it brought together many different stakeholders, from local authorities to the police, to waste management and environmental agencies, all working together to keep the skies safe for the flying public.

I remember a slightly less glamorous aspect of it however, visiting smoky garbage dumps just a few kilometers from the airport. These were essential checks since some were directly under or close to flight paths. The reason we went was to ensure there was no illegal dumping from fish or meat processing companies, which could attract large numbers of birds particularly vultures. We also visited meat-packing plants, inspected their waste systems, and educated staff on proper disposal to prevent runoff into nearby waterways, another major draw for scavenger birds.

You wouldn’t normally associate this kind of work with airports, right!, but it’s all part of the bigger picture of things like community education, cooperation, and prevention. It even extended to clearing roadkill near airport perimeters and setting up reporting systems for quick removal.

Due to their characteristics and the risks they pose, we focused a lot on the Black Vulture species in particular. This was because of their behavioral patterns and the manner in which they occupy the airspace. I would often watch them with a kind of awe. At home, I’d get out a pair of powerful binoculars, and even those would sometimes struggle to reach their great heights, often well up into the clouds if the conditions were just right.

Allow me to introduce you to our friends. Black vultures (Coragyps atratus) are quite common here in Central America and are tough, determined, voracious scavengers.

A Wake of Black Vultures, Pacific Coast, Nicaragua (Photo: Noel Cox)

Black vultures can eat things that would make most animals, and definitely most humans, very sick indeed. The fun fact is that the secret lies in their biology.

Their digestive system is built like a biohazard lab. The stomach acid of a black vulture is extremely strong, in fact strong enough to dissolve bones and neutralize many dangerous bacteria, including salmonella, botulism, and anthrax. What would kill other animals gets broken down and destroyed before it has a chance to cause harm. Their immune systems are also unusually robust. Over time, they’ve adapted to handle a constant load of pathogens. When they feed on rotting meat or decaying carcasses, their bodies process it efficiently and safely. It’s nature’s cleanup crew at work.

Another interesting thing - the bacteria that live on vultures, on their faces and in their guts, are part of the system too. They help keep harmful microbes in check, creating a sort of biological balance. So while what they eat looks (and smells) awful, it’s part of how they stay healthy and how they help the environment stay clean.

In short, what seems revolting to us is their way of keeping the world tidy. They do the dirty work that keeps disease from spreading -nature’s sanitation engineers, perfectly equipped for the job.

These all-black birds stand about two feet tall, with a gray-to-black, featherless head and neck, wrinkled like old leather. Their beak is short and hooked for tearing into tough flesh rather than slicing like an eagle’s. Adults weigh around five pounds and have a wingspan of about four and a half to five feet, giving them a broad, powerful silhouette.

Black Vulture, Pacific Coast, Nicaragua (Photo: Noel Cox)

As you can see from the photos and video, their talons are blunt and strong — more for gripping perches than slashing prey. They’re not hunters, after all. They feed aggressively in groups, forming large flocks seemingly out of nowhere. One spots the food, and the rest pile in, tearing apart carrion such as dead fish, roadkill, or waste from processing plants.

In flight, black vultures are direct and efficient. They soar with broad wings held flat and slightly forward, mixing long glides with short bursts of flapping. You’ll often see them in groups, called kettles, spiraling upward on thermal currents to scan for food. It’s an effective way to cover ground, but it also puts them in the path of low-flying aircraft.

They rely almost entirely on warm rising air currents, called thermals, to get airborne and stay aloft with minimal effort. Early in the morning, you’ll often see them perched with wings spread, drying off and waiting for the sun to heat the ground. Once the thermals start to rise, they take off, circling slowly upward in wide spirals, wings held flat and slightly forward. This formation is known as a kettle, an odd name I grant you.

A typical kettle might have anywhere from a dozen to a few dozen vultures, but in good conditions, you can see groups of a hundred or more sharing the same column of warm air. They don’t always fly shoulder-to-shoulder, they spread out within the updraft, rising together in loose formation. From a distance, it looks like they’re suspended in slow motion, gliding with barely a flap.

They typically fly at average altitudes of around 163 to 169 meters (535 to 554 feet) above ground level during foraging flights, with the most common altitude bands falling between 101-200 meters (331-656 feet). Studies have recorded maximum flight altitudes for black vultures reaching up to 1,578 meters (5,177 feet) above ground level, though such high flights are less common, and most activity occurs at lower levels to facilitate visual scavenging. They often fly higher than turkey vultures when searching for food, sometimes ascending out of visual range on strong thermals. 

Their vortex formations I talk about in the video are basically the swirling patterns you sometimes see when several of these kettles merge and form naturally as different groups find the same thermal. They’ll ride it upward, then peel off to glide downwind in search of food or another rising column of air. It’s a highly efficient system and they can cover huge distances with almost no energy, scanning the ground for food or following other vultures that seem to have spotted something interesting.

A Wake of Black Vultures, Pacific Coast, Nicaragua (Photo: Noel Cox)

And that’s the challenge for aviation. These birds are drawn to anything freshly dead, and that can include areas along flight corridors, near unmanaged waste, or even roadkill on airport access roads. A single vulture strike on an aircraft engine at takeoff speed can cause serious damage. I’ve seen cases of an aircraft with its radome completely smashed after a vulture strike. On another occasion, a Cessna Caravan returned to the airport with the cockpit breached, the pilots a bit shaken, covered in feathers and well, you can imagine how that was.

This is why the work of talking to plant managers about waste control is so important. We constantly monitored roads for quick cleanup, and engaged community outreach programs to educate folks about all this. It was hands-on work, often overlooked but it can save lives and resources.

Seeing those vultures tonight brought all that back. They’re magnificent creatures, and I’ve learned to respect them and they have an important role in the ecosystem. They share the skies with us, and managing that coexistence safely is part of what keeps aviation as reliable as it is.

I hope you found the video and images interesting.

Safe skies to all.

Thank you, Noel