How can a turkey vulture smell it's food (carrion) from so far away?

Question

Is it akin to a moth's pheromone-sensing abilities?

Answer 1

They have highly sensitive sense of smell and can detect smell of rotting flesh from miles away. Also they have keen eyesite which helps them spot carcasses.

Answer 2

The Turkey Vulture is actually the only bird of prey that uses it's sense of smell to find food, no other raptors use their sense in this way if they have any sense of smell at all. a turkey vultures nostrils go straight through it's beak, you can look through one nostril and see out the other side.

Answer 3

It is not related to pheremone sensing. The new world vultures, descended from storks and ibises, such as the turkey vulture, have an acute sense of smell. By contrast, old world vultures, such as the nubian vulture - from the same family as hawks and eagles - have no sense of smell.

The turkey vulture has a particularly keen sense of smell, and is attracted to the scent of mercaptan, the gas produced by the beginnings of decay. This gas was used by a piping company that was trying to find a leak in their gas lines. They pumped it through the lines, and where it leaked through, turkey vultures began to congregate.

Answer 4

through its nose, made a bit easier because the food its after is decaying and rank

Answer 5

They prefer fresh meat to rotten and herbivorous animals to carnivores.