Turkey vultures are almost entirely carrion eaters and pose virtually no threat to healthy chickens. They feed on animals that are already dead, locating carcasses primarily through an unusually powerful sense of smell. While turkey vultures have been documented killing very sick or extremely weak animals on rare occasions, they are not predators of livestock or poultry. If vultures are circling near your coop, they’re far more likely drawn to a dead animal nearby than eyeing your flock.
That said, there’s an important distinction many chicken keepers miss: the bird they’re worried about may not be a turkey vulture at all. Black vultures, a separate species that looks similar, are genuinely aggressive toward live animals and have been expanding their range northward across the eastern United States.
Why Turkey Vultures Ignore Live Chickens
Turkey vultures are built for scavenging, not hunting. They lack the strong talons that raptors like hawks and eagles use to grab and kill prey. Their feet are relatively weak, better suited for standing on a carcass than seizing a struggling animal. Their beaks are designed to tear soft, decaying flesh rather than dispatch living creatures.
Their primary food-finding tool is smell. Research published in Animal Cognition found that olfaction is the dominant sense turkey vultures use when foraging. In controlled experiments, turkey vultures consistently followed the scent of putrefied meat rather than visual cues, even when researchers tried to train them to rely on sight. In the wild, they soar over forests and fields detecting the chemical signature of decomposition below. This means a healthy, active chicken simply doesn’t register as food to them. A chicken carcass left in or near a coop, on the other hand, will attract their attention from a considerable distance.
Black Vultures Are the Real Concern
If you’ve heard reports of vultures attacking livestock, the culprit is almost always the black vulture. Smaller and more aggressive than turkey vultures, black vultures have been documented attacking and killing newborn calves, lambs, piglets, and other weak or young animals. They can and do target poultry, particularly birds that are confined, injured, or unable to escape.
Black vultures are still primarily scavengers, but some have developed more predatory behavior, especially in areas where easy food sources overlap with livestock operations. Purdue Extension researchers have noted that black vultures primarily prey on newborn and young animals that can put up little resistance, and sick or weak adults also become targets. For a backyard chicken keeper, a small or bantam hen, a broody bird sitting on a nest, or a sick chicken could all be vulnerable.
How to Tell Them Apart
Turkey vultures are larger, with brownish-black feathers and a distinctive bare red head. In flight, they hold their wings in a slight V-shape and wobble or tilt as they soar. Black vultures are stockier and entirely black, including their head (which is dark gray and wrinkled rather than red). They flap their wings more frequently in flight and have a shorter tail. Black vultures also tend to be more social and congregate in larger groups. If you’re seeing a big cluster of vultures perched near your property, black vultures are the more likely species.
Black Vulture Range Is Expanding
Black vultures historically lived in the southeastern United States and Central and South America. Over recent decades, both their population and range have expanded significantly northward. They now regularly appear across Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other Midwestern and mid-Atlantic states where they were once uncommon. According to Cornell Lab’s Birds of the World, this expansion has increased conflicts with farmers and livestock owners.
If you keep chickens in the southeastern U.S., you’re already in core black vulture territory. If you’re in the Midwest or mid-Atlantic region, black vultures may be newer arrivals in your area, and local farmers may not yet recognize the difference between the two species. Knowing which vulture you’re dealing with determines whether you actually have a problem.
Legal Protections for Both Species
Both turkey vultures and black vultures are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which makes it illegal to kill, capture, sell, or transport them without authorization from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This applies even if they’re bothering your livestock. Shooting a vulture without a permit can result in federal penalties.
However, it is perfectly legal to harass vultures and use deterrents to drive them away from your property. If black vultures become a serious problem for your livestock, you can apply for a depredation permit through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but non-lethal methods are required first.
How to Keep Vultures Away From Your Flock
The simplest protection is a covered run. Vultures are large birds and won’t enter an enclosed space with overhead netting or a solid roof. If your chickens free-range, providing covered shelters they can duck under gives them a retreat when large birds appear overhead. Chickens are naturally wary of shadows from above, so they’ll often take cover on their own.
For properties where vultures are roosting nearby, active harassment works well. The University of Kentucky’s forestry department recommends loud noises like air horns, spraying birds with a garden hose, pyrotechnics, and propane cannons for larger properties. The goal is to make vultures feel unsafe enough that they relocate their roost.
Vulture effigies are surprisingly effective, particularly against black vultures. A dead vulture (or a realistic fake one) hung upside down by its feet with wings spread sends a strong signal to other vultures that the area is dangerous. The effigy needs to be hung high enough to be visible from a distance and placed as close to the roosting site as possible. Studies and field reports consistently show that properly displayed effigies can clear a vulture roost within days.
One often overlooked step: remove anything that attracts vultures in the first place. Promptly dispose of any dead chickens, don’t leave feed or food scraps exposed, and clean up afterbirth if you also raise livestock. A property with no smell of death gives turkey vultures no reason to investigate and reduces the chance that black vultures will discover your flock while scavenging.