Black vultures (Coragyps atratus) are not that common in West Virginia. The turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) is much more common. The way you tell them apart is that turkey vultures have a longer wingspan and all the flight feathers are light-colored. Only the flight feathers towards the tip are light-colored on black vultures.
I came across a flock of four black vultures that were cruising in the sky with a single turkey vulture, and then I realized I hadn’t photographed this species before. So took a few photographs.
So here are my first photos of a black vulture. They aren’t the best photos, but they are pretty cool to me.
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On a good day, it might resemble an eagle. Not easy to distinguish them based on the pictures. Perhaps this might be the case for an untrained eye like mine!
It’s not an eagle. We have bald and golden eagles here, and a bald eagle, even a juvenile, is very easy to tell from the two New World vultures we have here. The golden eagle is a lot larger than anything else flying around here.
It does look like an eagle for an untrained eye like mine. There are no vultures in my country though.