Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

AKA Black headed Vultures

These birds are making an appearance in east central Missouri and they aren't making any friends among the Live Stock farmers, I first heard about them earlier this summer, I saw my first pair Yesterday on my way home from Cuba Mo.,I came over a small rise @ 60 mph, I started slowing down and they didn't move, I came to a stop within 10 ft. of them before one moved, the other just sat there and looked at me, it didn't move until I was almost on top to it, the it took one hop and flew, damned thing looked like a 747 well almost 😉 It was about the size of a wild turkey hen with a huge wing span.
Now I have heard they will attack calves, sheep and goats , they peck their eyes out then sit and wait for them to die, I read in The Missouri Farm Bureau Magazine of a pair doing the same to a full grown cow, and just read they are protected by the Federal Migratory Bird treaty and other laws.

https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g9466#:~:text=Black%20vultures%20(Coragyps%20atratus)%20are,the%20year%20in%20the%20state.

fuminous Loc: Luling, LA... for now...

Smaller mammals, such as cats, they'll catch and beat against the ground until dead. My father witnessed such an event. .... about 150 miles south of you... There's a flock that roosts over my dad's driveway- and make quite a mess. Bottle rockets will scare them off for about an hour. Signs at the local boat dock warn of potential damage to cars from vultures... Protected or not, in my area, there are fewer now than last year...

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

The behavior of Black-headed Vultures must be different than Turkey Vultures or the Farmers are hallucinating. We have Turkey Vultures all over where I live on the CA Central Coast they don't get a chance to kill anything, they just get hit by cars or have to compete with all the other predators. My dog tried to chew on a dead Vulture on the beach while a live one watched. Probably wanting to eat his dead pal. The dog was pulled away.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

We have turkey vultures here too but and they don't bother anything .
MUCH different!!! they are bigger and much more aggressive.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Probably the same here

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Your looking for a solution to these pests but it has to be compliant with local, state, and federal law. Yes, you can use loud noises and fireworks which is expensive and cause you problems with the local Leos. And face it, mostly none of this works for long and the solution is often more trouble that it is worth.

Oh, the other bright idea of putting cast birds of pray around only works a little or not at all, like painted owl statues. Though these do look quite nice.

My mother use to repeat phrases that I remembered after she had died, she was a vary smart woman. One I use all the time, "Work smart, not hard!"

This is a solution that works and is vary simple and it is timely, so share it with the locals and all the poor farm and ranchers along with your neighbours, It is cheap and simple.

The solution is the long string of reflective tinsel that one finds at Christmas time to make decorations. Silver is fine (I found to be best) but and reflective long strings of this material will work. The birds hate these reflective materials. It moves and it shimmers. They literally see it as threating.

In San Antonio we are 'blessed' with the migration of a bird that is protected called a Grackle. Loud nasty birds that fly in large groups and hang out together in flocks in trees. It is not the noise, it is that they collective shit together and will cover a car in their feces. It was the end of the Christmas holidays and there were a pile of these long strings of silver, gold and red streamers laying about after parties. I worked at a historic property and these things where left over and discarded. The best ones (undamaged), I collected and was going to use them in some photographic sets, it is what I do. Luck for me the trash was in front in the parking lot waiting to be picked up. So I took all in a bundle and was walking back to the main building when I had occasion to walk below one of the newly over run trees in the parking lot. As I began walking beneath the tree the Grackles went crazy and all of them took off like the devil was after them.

So, I ted a rock to one end of one of the silver streamers and threw it up into the tree into the limbs of that tree. The Grackles refused to have anything to do with that tree. I was thinking smart.

I then went to a local store that was selling reduced priced Christmas decorations. They too had part of their parking lot closed due to all the bird droppings. It bought all they had and then found the manager and explained what I was doing, I gave him several lengths of the purchased steamers and explained what to do.

I returned to my buildings and was putting the streamers in each tree when the manager of the exclusive club (Club Gerard) came out and asked what was i doing (his guys had seen me and we all were great friends). I explained what was up and got a box of the silver streamers out of my van and gave it to him. He had his people begin to tie rocks to streamers and put them up in the trees. Working smart, the manager was so happy with the solution that he covered the coast of the purchase for all the streamers.

To finish, Brian (the Club Gerard manager) called his buddies on the San Antonio River Walk locations and they sent people to get streamers and to apply these to the trees around the businesses of the River Walk. Today, in the current San Antonio River Walk area you will see among the Christmas décor long silver streamers up in the trees in parking loats and along the River walk to keep the Grackles out of the trees. The city has even stopped setting off loud fireworks as it is not as effective as the reflective streamers. It is such a delight to visit the many sites in San Antonio with out getting duckied by the birds or slipping on the side walks while walking around.

Think smart, WORK smart, not hard!

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

I have no problem with them YET when I do it will be handled!!

Grandpa Mike Loc: Ohio

Unlike the Turkey Vulture, The Black headed vulture are very aggressive! They absolutely will kill lambs and new born calves. We have a small cattle farm in eastern Ohio, in the past 3 years they have become a huge issue. There are special permits available that allow us to eliminate a specific number of vultures. When we do, we hang the bird upside down and it definitely keeps the remaining birds away.

Canisdirus

They are protected for a reason.

They give far more than they take...I rehabilitated one for 4 months...amazing creatures.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

You tell that to a farmer that has lost a cow that is worth hundreds of dollars.
The Turkey Vultures are doing a fine job of cleaning up !! and they do not attack livestock.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

M1911 Loc: DFW Metromess

In some parts of Texas there is 3 word solution to these sorts of problems.

SHOOT. SHOVEL. SHUTUP

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Yikes, that sounds horrible that they attack House Cats.

Canisdirus

It's a tough business...but nature is nature.

Get rid of vultures...you get rabies running around a lot more.

Muddyvalley Loc: McMinnville, Oregon

Worse than just rabies.
With a loss of over 99% of all the population of vultures, the Indian vulture crisis represents the sharpest decline of any animal in the given period.[3] A major contributing factor in declining populations of vultures is believed to be the widespread use of drugs such as diclofenac, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) once commonly given to livestock. The drug is believed to have been passed onto the vultures through the flesh of dead cattle who were given diclofenac in their last days of life, which then causes kidney failure in vultures.[4] Data modelling revealed that a tiny proportion (about 0.8%) of livestock carcasses containing diclofenac can cause significant crash in vulture populations.[5]

Without vultures, a large number of animal carcasses were left to rot, posing a serious risk to human health by providing a potential breeding ground for infectious germs and proliferation of pests such as rats.[6] The loss of vultures also resulted in a substantial increase in the population of feral dogs, whose bites are the most common cause of human rabies. The feral dog population in India increased by least 5 million, resulting in over 38 million additional dog bites and more than 47,000 extra deaths from rabies, costing $34 billion in economic impact. A vulture's metabolism is a true “dead-end” for pathogens, but dogs and rats become carriers of the pathogens.
Much more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_vulture_crisis