What Animal Lives Where

Where has the Turkey Vulture been recorded?

Cathartes aura occurrence evidence comes from 114,024 records in 33 countries and territories, from 1859 to 2026. Most records come from United States.

Turkey Vulture
Turkey Vulture — Photo (display-sized rendition): Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
AvesAccipitriformesCathartidaeCathartes

Observation evidence passport

Evidence found

114,024 records across 33 countries and territories, 1859–2026.

Cathartes aura · GBIF taxon key 2481930

Source coverage

CC0 GBIF Animalia occurrence facets, including country, month and year summaries.

Refreshed 2026-09-20. Inspect the taxon on GBIF.

What this means

The species has been recorded in the listed places in the stated source universe. Peak month: February.

5 months reach at least 10% of the peak facet count.

What this does not mean

repeated describes the record pattern, not a formal range, residency, abundance or conservation assessment.

A single record remains evidence of a recording, not proof that a population lives there.

Compare this animal’s observation pattern

When it is recorded

JFMAMJJASOND

Peak month: February. Records cluster in the months an animal is present and being looked for, so a summer peak can reflect observer effort as much as the animal.

Records over time

18592026

Recording effort has risen steeply almost everywhere since the 1990s, so a rising line usually shows more observers rather than more animals.

Where Turkey Vulture has been recorded

The countries below show where occurrence evidence exists for Turkey Vulture. They do not define a complete habitat range: survey effort differs by place, and historical or one-off records can appear alongside repeated presence.

PlaceRecordsShare
United States 98,000
Canada 9,328
Colombia 4,930
Mexico 853
Argentina 208
Costa Rica 142
Brazil 91
Peru 78
Chile 75
Cuba 52
Uruguay 46
El Salvador 34
Ecuador 28
Panama 28
Belize 18
Dominican Republic 18
Bolivia 12
Guyana 10
Jamaica 10
Falkland Islands 9
Sweden 8
Venezuela 8
Nicaragua 7
Puerto Rico 5
Trinidad & Tobago 5
Guatemala 4
Honduras 4
Bahamas 3
Paraguay 3
French Guiana 2
Belgium 1
Cayman Islands 1
Suriname 1

Related animals

Others in the family Cathartidae.

Black Vulture
Black Vulture
35,239 records
Greater Yellow-headed Vulture
Greater Yellow-headed Vulture
153 records
Record pattern: repeated
Repeated records across many years and months. This is inferred from how many years and months the animal appears in, not from a range map — treat it as evidence, not a formal assessment.