Cathartes

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Cathartes

Turkey Vulture in woods

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Ciconiiformes
Family:	Cathartidae
Genus:	Cathartes Illiger, 1811

Species

Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)
Greater Yellow-headed Vulture (Cathartes melambrotus)
Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture (Cathartes burrovianus)

The genus Cathartes (Greek for "purifier") includes medium-sized to large carrion-feeding birds in the New World vulture (Cathartidae) family. There are 3 species currently classified in this genus. Cathartes vultures occur widely in the Western Hemisphere.

While all species obtain a majority of their diet by scavenging, the Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture is known to hunt live prey in wetland environments.

All Cathartes species have featherless heads with brightly colored skin (yellow to orange in the yellow-headed vultures, bright red in the Turkey Vulture).

[edit] Systematics

Cathartes is the only genus in its family which is not monotypic.

While all birds in the genus Cathartes share the common name "vulture", they are not related to the Old World vultures in the order Falconiformes.

[edit] References

Howell, Steve N.G., and Sophie Webb. "A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America." Oxford University Press, New York, 1995. (ISBN 0-19-854012-4)