Turkey vultures spotted on a hike in San Diego’s Mission Trails Regional Park lead to a small feast of collective nouns for turkey vultures. A group in a tree can be a committee, a venue, or a volt. In flight, it’s a kettle, and when feasting on carrion, a wake. The birds have another bit of vocabulary, urohydrosis, cooling themselves by urinating on their legs. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of ““Committee,” “Kettle,” and “Wake” Are Terms for Vultures Gathering and Feeding”
The other day I was hiking in beautiful Mission Trails Regional Park here, and I saw a bunch of turkey vultures, and that got me to thinking about turkey vultures.
And there turned out to be a great display there at the Visitor Center about turkey vultures.
And now I am newly obsessed with turkey vultures because there’s so much cool language involved.
You know what a group of vultures in a tree is called?
Is this a real collective noun?
Yes.
It’s one of the artistic ones.
No, no.
No, I don’t know what it is.
It’s a committee.
A committee of vultures.
Or you can say a venue of vultures or a vault of vultures.
A vault, V-U-L-T?
V-O-L-T.
V-O-L-T.
And the word for a group of vultures flying is different.
It’s kettle.
A kettle of vultures.
A kettle of vultures.
Like K-E-T-T-L-E?
Yes.
And then a group of vultures that is feeding on a dead animal is called awake.
Awake.
Awake of vultures.
Yeah, yeah.
These are terms that ornithologists use.
These are real terms or jokey terms?
No, they’re terms that ornithologists use.
You know, another cool thing about them that I learned is that, did you know that vultures, to cool themselves, will pee on their legs?
No.
How is that cool?
It’s called urohydrosis, from Greek for urine sweating.
Okay.
You know, it evaporates and cools their legs.
Congratulations, another reason not to hang around with vultures.
And their Latin name, cathartes ara, means cleansing breeze.
So bald heads, the smell of carrion, and pee on their legs.
Yeah.
They’re remarkable creatures.
But they’re the waste management business of nature.
America’s strongest.
Yes.
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