Vermont Rare Bird Reports 2020

Kyle Tansley.

Clear

8x42 Vortex Vipers, Nikon D500 with 500mm lens, AudioMoth.

Seen once before at a great distance in Delaware. Seen many TUVUs.

Abandoned building behind a subdivided house in a deeply urban environment. Building had a gaping maw in the side where a contractor was tearing it down. Trees, scrub, vines, fencing, and a stump were nearby. Gaping maw could be approached by a road divided by a line of bushes from an adjoining parking lot. Building probably 100 feet from occupied house. All occurred in the back lots between the rows of houses.

The building itself was of two floors; the nesting occurred amongst detritus in the upper level. Access coming from hole in wall.

Observed agitated adult(s), and curious nestling staying within building but looking curious from the back of the building.

Also recorded throaty grunting of the parents returning to the nest, by using an AudioMoth remote listening device stuffed next to a tire on an overhanging section of the upper root, and left to record for a month. Most recordings were lost due to software issues, but was able to isolate at least one occurrence of an adult coming to feed the baby bird.

Low, raspy grunt, almost but not quite like a pigeon coo.

This building was slated for demolition. Kyle Tansley managed to convince the city to tell the owner not to demolish it (which he was doing at their behest, to begin with). However, demolition continued briefly while this was all worked out, until eventually the nesting adults were left alone, and shortly after, a Black Vulture hatched and was raised in the upper floor of the building, even though there was a giant hole in the side of the building. It was still relatively protected. I went there at least three times: https://ebird.org/checklist/S73570878, https://ebird.org/checklist/S73652406, and https://ebird.org/checklist/S70880228. I installed an AudioMoth for a month, and got some recordings of the parents coming and feeding the child. Eventually, the young vulture grew up and flew away, although I didn't witness much more of this bird. Kyle took many, many photos.

First checklist notes:
One adult, one chick in the nest, and a contractor actively using an excavator to destroy that side of the building. This is the most memorable state birds I’ve had in a while, and I’m not happy about it.

I had been alerted to this nest by a friend in the area. The vulture was nesting in the second floor of an old building in a back lot behind the driveway in downtown Burlington. When I arrived, there was no adult present, but rather the contractor and a large excavator. The contractor was actively removing washing machines from the first floor, through a large gap in the wall, directly beneath the nest. The nest was very open to the elements, although recessed around eight feet under the roof of the building. By standing on a dead tree stump around 8 feet up, 40 feet away, I was able to barely see the white head of the chick beyond some debris. I was unable to get a close identification of the chick.

After around ten minutes, one of the parents returned - with Black Vultures, both the mother and the father care for the chick, and they are sexually monomorphic. The parent roosted on a tree ten feet up and ten feet over from the building, watching the excavator, bill-cleaning, and scratching itself. After twenty minutes, I left, as I was unlikely to get a better shot of the chick without disturbing the nest by climbing up to the second floor, and was there was nothing left to do. I would have liked to have gotten sound, but there was no way to do this without disturbing the adult vulture, and the contractor was doing enough of that, as is.

Second checklist comments:
Kyle Tansley had been closely monitoring this Black Vulture nest in downtown Burlington, the first in Vermont. I asked to see the bird, as I hadn't seen one in Vermont. He kindly showed me, on condition I keep quiet about its location. Having noticed that there were very few audio recordings of any Vulture species, I was particularly keen on getting an audio recording of this bird, and I showed up to my first visit with a mic in hand. However, Black Vultures only give vocalizations rarely, and I did not want to record a 'hiss' if I had to disturb the nestling or the parents. In order to ethically record this bird, I asked Bridget Butler to borrow her Moth. I set it up and recorded live data for around a week (it would have been longer, but for technical issues). I checked the time against known movements of the birds from Kyle and his trail cams, noting that the birds were often seen in the morning. Scrolling through the audio, I found these clear audio recordings. I have not yet looked for more recordings on different days, and I am ignoring other birds that were recorded using the Moth (NOCA, BCCH, AMGO, WBNU, etc).

eBird does not normally allow remotely-sensed birds to be recorded. It doesn't prohibit remote audio recordings specifically, but it is implied. However, given the sensitive nature of this nest, the rarity of the bird, and the ethics involved, I hope that this checklist is not amiss. If the only way to get a valid eBird audio recording is to sit at the nest with a mic for days, I am happy to do so, but I think that here an exception might be made.

Media comments:

Details: Two black vulture parents actively took over caring for the nestling, using alternate shifts, according to Kyle Tansley (I've seen all three individuals, myself). There is only one chick. When I went to pick up the Moth, the fledgling was inside the building looking at me, and I took it away as surreptitiously as possible.

This recording shows one of the parents coming down and landing on the opened segment of the second floor, before grunting interminably. As noted by Birds of the World: "Hissing and grunting sounds commonly described and are most often heard when birds are feeding or fighting." Neither feeding or fighting appears to be occurring here; it's possible that this noise is given on approach of the nest by a parent. However, Nathan Pieplow notes that this grunt is given during interactions with other vultures at roost. It's possible that there are two adults in this recording.

Third checklist comment: Two adults sunning themselves on the chimney, and the immature fledgling inside.

Large vulture-shaped bird.

Black feathers on the head eliminate Turkey Vulture. The fledgling had white feathers, which were eventually replaced by a similar black garment.

Adults had white tip to black bill; imm all black. Feet whitish.

Black.

Black.

Black, large.

Black.

Short, black.

Black feathering on head, short tail, and call eliminated Turkey Vulture. Fairly distinctive.