Cathartes

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Cathartes
Turkey vulture in
Morro Bay
, California
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Cathartiformes
Family: Cathartidae
Genus: Cathartes
Illiger, 1811
Type species
Vultur aura[1][2]
Linnaeus, 1758
Species
Approximate distribution of the genus Cathartes. Green indicates that at least one species is resident year-round and yellow shows areas where one species, the turkey vulture, is a summer-only breeding visitor.

The genus Cathartes includes medium-sized to large carrion-feeding birds in the New World vulture (Cathartidae) family. The three extant species currently classified in this genus occur widely in the Americas. There is one extinct species known from the Quaternary of Cuba.[3]

Cathartes is the Greek word καθαρτής, for "purifier," referring to these vultures' role as "cleansers" that "tidy up" decomposing corpses in nature.

Taxonomy

Description

The first member of this genus to be formally described, the turkey vulture, was named by Linnaeus as Vultur aura in his Systema Naturae in 1758,[4] but was eventually moved to the current genus which had been created by German zoologist Johann Illiger in 1811.[5] The yellow-headed birds first described in 1845 by John Cassin were not split into two species until 1964.[6][7]

Systematics

Cathartes is one of the five genera of

storks.[9]

In 2007 the

International Ornithological Congress.[14]

Species

The genus Cathartes has three recognized extant species:[15][3]

Genus Cathartes – Illiger, 1811 – three species
Common name Scientific name and subspecies Range Size and ecology IUCN status and estimated population
Turkey vulture

Cathartes aura
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Five subspecies
  • C. a. aura
  • C. a. jota Molina, GI 1782
  • C. a. meridionalis Swann, 1921
  • C. a. ruficollis Spix, 1824
  • C. a. septentrionalis Wied-Neuwied, 1839
the Americas from southern Canada to Cape Horn
Map of range 		Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


18,000,000[16]

Lesser yellow-headed vulture

Cathartes burrovianus
Cassin, 1845 		Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela
Map of range 		Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


500,000-4,999,999[17]

Greater yellow-headed vulture

Cathartes melambrotus
Wetmore, 1964 		South America
Map of range 		Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


between 100,000 and 1,000,000[18]


One

Emslie's vulture (C. emsliei) is known from Late Quaternary fossil remains from Cuba, and it likely went extinct following the extinction of the megafauna whose carrion it would have fed on during the Quaternary extinction event, coupled with the subsequent loss of the savanna habitats it would have favored.[19]

Description

All Cathartes species have featherless heads with brightly colored skin, yellow to orange in the yellow-headed vultures, bright red in the turkey vulture. All three species share a well-developed sense of smell, which is rare in birds, that enables them to locate carrion under the canopy.

Distribution and habitat

The vultures of Cathartes mosty occupy forests of the Americas, especially Mexico, Central America, and South America.

Ecology and behaviour

While all species obtain most of their diet by scavenging, the lesser yellow-headed vulture is known to hunt live prey in wetland environments.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cathartes.
Wikispecies has information related to Cathartes.
  1. ^ Vigors, N. A. (1825). "Sketches in Ornithology; or, Observations on the leading Affinities of some of the more extensive groups of Birds. On the Groups of the Vulturidæ". The Zoological Journal. 2 (7): 384.
  2. ^ International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1958) [1916]. "Opinion 67. One Hundred and Two Bird Names Placed in the Official List of Generic Names". Opinions and Declarations Rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. 1 (B): 177–182.
  3. ^
    ISSN 0007-1595
    .
  4. ^ Linnaeus, Carolus (1758). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata (in Latin). Holmiae. (Laurentii Salvii). p. 86.
  5. ^ Illiger, Johann (1811). Prodromus systematis mammalium et avium. Berolini: Sumptibus C. Salfeld. p. 236.
  6. ^ Cassin, John. "[untitled]". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 2 (8): 212. Near Veracruz, Mexico.
  7. ^ Wetmore, Alexander (1964). "A revision of the American vultures of the genus Cathartes". Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 146 (6): 15.
  8. ^ Remsen, J. V. Jr.; C. D. Cadena; A. Jaramillo; M. Nores; J. F. Pacheco; M. B. Robbins; T. S. Schulenberg; F. G. Stiles; D. F. Stotz & K. J. Zimmer (2007) A classification of the bird species of South America. Archived March 2, 2009, at the Wayback Machine South American Classification Committee]
  9. ISBN 0-300-04969-2
  10. ^ American Ornithologists' Union (2009)
  11. ^ Remsen et al. (2008)
  12. ^ Hackett et al. (2008)
  13. ^ American Ornithologists' Union (2010)
  14. International Ornithological Congress. "IOC World Bird List"
    . 14.1. IOC. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
  15. ^ "Cathartes". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  16. ^ Sauer, J. R., J. E. Hines, J. E. Fallon, K. L. Pardieck Jr. Ziolkowski, D. J. and W. A. Link. The North American Breeding Bird Survey, results and analysis 1966-2013 (Version 1.30.15). USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (2014b). Available from http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/ Archived 2012-06-09 at the Wayback Machine
  17. doi:10.2305/iucn.uk.2021-3.rlts.t22697630a163511443.en
    .
  18. ^ BirdLife International (2024). "Greater Yellow-headed Vulture Cathartes melambrotus". BLI Datazone.
  19. ISSN 0007-1595
    .
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