Why are vultures bald?

Answer 1

Local baldness is a trait carried in many species of birds, including macaws (on the eye area), buzzards, and bald eagles. Buzzards are also carrion feeders and they're probably in the second-cousin range of vultures, so the baldness would have come from a common ancestor, and for the obvious reasons already listed, ancestors that weren't bald probably didn't have much of a chance to breed for very long before they died.

Answer 2

Not all vultures are bald, the Lammergeier, the Egyptian Vulture and the palm nut vulture all have feathers on their heads this is because these vultures don't often eat carcases, the Lammergeier or bearded vulture eats bones and marrow. They will carry a bone high over a large rock and drop it so it smashes to pieces so it can be easily eat it. The Egyptian Vulture uses small rocks to smash eggs or smashes eggs onto rocks and no points for guessing what the Palm Nut Vulture eats. Basically the vultures you see with bald heard are carrion eaters, this means they eat dead stuff and are poking their heads inside bloody carcasses. But not all Vultures do it.

Answer 3

There is an important purpose to the vulture's bald head. When the vulture is eating carrion, it must often stick its head inside the carcass to reach the meat. A feathery head would capture unwanted pieces of the vulture's meal, along with all the bacteria it hosts. After mealtime, the turkey vulture perches in the heat of the sun. whatever has managed to cling to the few bits of fuzz on their head will be baked off.

Answer 4

Vultures are bald because they are scavengers. When they are picking at dead, rotting corpses they stick their heads in the body. If they had feathers, their feathers would get all nasty from the blood and guts.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

It's supposed to be an adaptation to keep the head clean, since they eat meat from rotting carcasses.

Answer 7

So they can stick their heads inside a rotting carcass to eat and not get nasty.

( like there's any difference...yecchhhh )

Answer 8

so that their heads stay clean, when they eat, they stick their heads inside the bodies of their prey to get at the insides

Answer 9

cause they stick their heads into dead carcasses, and if there were feathers there, they would be very dirty, so its for cleanliness. i hope i get ten points

Answer 10

ever see where they stick their heads into. feathers would trap microbes and disease organisms possably causing them sickness