Vultures sitting on houses is a phenomenon that many homeowners have experienced. While it may seem strange or even alarming to some, there are perfectly logical reasons why vultures perch on rooftops and other high vantage points.
In most cases, vultures use houses and other structures as convenient places to rest and survey the landscape for food. As scavengers, vultures have excellent eyesight and sense of smell to help them locate carrion, or dead and decaying animals. Sitting atop a house gives them a broad view of the surrounding area, allowing them to more easily spot potential food sources.
Some key facts about why vultures commonly use houses:
- Vultures have weak feet and legs that are not well-adapted for grasping. Flat surfaces like roofs and ledges provide a stable place for them to perch.
- Their large wingspans make taking flight from the ground difficult. An elevated perch allows them to fully extend their wings to catch air currents.
- As social birds that roost in groups, houses and barns present ideal spots for multiple vultures to gather together.
- They prefer high perches for good visibility of the ground to locate food.
- Vultures are diurnal, meaning most active during daylight hours when they hunt. Houses and trees give them a place to rest and sun themselves.
- During migration, rooftops provide stopover places to rest across wide territories.
While vultures pose no real harm to people or property, their presence may cause distress for homeowners. Later sections will provide more details on reasons for their behavior, as well as options for safely dissuading them from using your home as a perch or roost site.
Why Vultures Sit on Houses
Vultures frequently use man-made structures as lookout posts for spotting carcasses and monitoring feeding opportunities in the area. Here are some of the main reasons vultures commonly sit on houses:
Ideal Vantage Points
With excellent long-distance vision, vultures rely on their eyesight to scan the landscape when searching for food. An elevated perch on a house gives them a panoramic view of the surrounding terrain, allowing them to spot carcasses more efficiently. The height also helps them identify potential threats or competing scavengers approaching a food source.
Thermoregulation
Vultures need to carefully regulate their body temperature. Perching atop homes exposes them to direct sunlight, which helps to warm their bodies after chilly nights. Spreading their wings also enables cooling airflow over their body on hot days.
Social Interactions
In between feeding sessions, vultures congregate in communal roosts to rest and socialize. The broad, open roofs of houses or barns provide gathering places for multiple birds to cluster together. Familiar structures become regular roosting spots over time.
Convenient Resting Sites
With weak legs and large wingspans, vultures prefer flat, elevated places to comfortably rest and take off from. Houses supply accessible spots to perch and conserve energy in between periods of active flight. Wide roof ledges allow for easy takeoffs to soar on thermal drafts.
Stopover Sites During Migration
Some vulture species migrate seasonally. Long migrations require plenty of stopping points along their routes to rest and feed. Structures like water towers, cell phone towers and homes supply convenient interim roosting sites during travels.
Limited Natural Perches
In built-up, residential areas trees and other natural perches may be scarce. Vultures adapt and make use of the many houses, barns and sheds as alternate perching locations.
Different Vulture Species Involved
There are seven species of vulture found in North America. Of these, four types most commonly use man-made structures for perching:
Turkey Vulture
- Most widespread vulture in North America
- Often seen soaring over open areas or perched on dead trees
- Sometimes roost communally on roofs, window ledges
Black Vulture
- Mainly found in southeastern states
- Gregarious birds that roost together on structures
- Prefer roosts on low, flat surfaces like barn roofs
California Condor
- Endangered, largest North American vulture
- Use man-made sites for nesting and communal roosting
- Seek out isolated high perches overlooking open terrain
Andean Condor
- Rare North American migrant from South America
- Require remote mountain cliffs for nesting but do use buildings
- Drawn to prominent roosts like towers or windmills
The turkey vulture is by far the most common species associated with urban structures. But any vultures native to a region could potentially be attracted to roosting on a house or barn if available.
Rooftop Roosting Behaviors
Understanding typical vulture behaviors can provide insight into why they favor rooftops. Here are some of the things vultures commonly do while perched on houses:
- Sun themselves by facing into sunlight with wings spread open
- Stand with wings outstretched to cool down by convection
- Take short flights around or atop the house to reach a different perch
- Socialize with other vultures through grunts, hisses or bill-clicking
- Defecate and expel smelly discharge as they roost
- Regurgitate food remains that can collect on the roof
- Bring food scraps to the roof to feed young
- Tear apart food items like roadkill on the roof
- Roost in groups that sometimes number dozens of birds
These behaviors help explain why prolonged vulture roosting can become a nuisance and concerning for homeowners. The birds tend to foul the roof area with their droppings and leftovers. And large flocks may be perceived as eerie or threatening when clustered on a home.
When Do Vultures Come to Roost?
Vultures are diurnal, meaning their activity and hunting takes place during daylight hours. They will gather at their roost sites about an hour before sunset. Departure from the roost varies by season, ranging from mid-morning to midday as thermals develop for soaring flight.
During winter months, vultures will perch at roosts later in the morning to absorb more heat from the sun before heading out. The quantity of vultures at a roost also fluctuates seasonally, tending to peak in late summer and fall before the migratory period.
Here is a breakdown of typical turkey vulture roosting patterns:
Season | Arrival at Roost | Departure from Roost |
---|---|---|
Spring | 1 hour before sunset | 10-11 am |
Summer | 1 hour before sunset | 9-10 am |
Fall | 1 hour before sunset | 10-11 am |
Winter | 1 hour before sunset | 11 am – 12 pm |
This cycle coincides with the movement of thermal warm air currents they rely on for staying aloft and soaring flight during the day when searching for carrion.
Potential Health and Safety Issues
While vultures serve an important role as nature’s clean-up crew, their presence around homes can cause some concerns for property owners. Some potential problems associated with vulture roosting include:
Droppings Buildup
Vulture excrement is unsightly and can be a nuisance to clean off roofs and outdoor surfaces. The accumulated droppings have high levels of uric acid that can kill vegetation and erode some building materials over time.
Bacteria and Microbes
Vultures host types of bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms that aid their digestion but may be harmful pathogens to humans. Avian diseases could potentially transmit to people via airborne dust from dry droppings.
Respiratory Issues
The dust, feathers and dander associated with vulture roosts can aggravate allergies and asthma in some individuals. Gas emissions from accumulated droppings may also impact air quality.
Property Damage
Large or long-established roosts can result in damage to roof shingles, paint, window screens and gutters from the acidic excrement. Vultures may also peck, scratch or tear at surfaces.
Noise Disturbances
The hissing, grunting, bill-clicking vocalizations of groups of vultures at the roost can create frequent noisy disturbances.
Loss of Outdoor Enjoyment
The smell and off-putting nature of a vulture roost right by a residence understandably impede homeowners’ ability to enjoy their outdoor space.
Deterring Vultures from Roosting on Your House
If vultures start making themselves at home on your roof or property, there are some methods you can try to dissuade them without harming the birds:
Remove Food Attractants
Eliminate any animal carcasses, pet food, trash piles or other food sources on your land that provide carrion for vultures. This helps make the area less appealing.
Use Scare Devices
Motion-activated sprinklers, flashing lights, clapping hands, balloons or mylar tape may initially startle vultures off of roosts. But they often quickly become used to these tactics so changing it up is key.
Apply Repellent Gels
Non-toxic gels like Bird-X and Avitrol can be smeared along edges of roofs or windowsills to deter perching using mild irritation or stickiness. Reapplication is required after rain or over time.
Install Exclusion Devices
Porcupine wire, Nixalite spikes or slope modification on ledges can make it more difficult for vultures to land and get a stable footing for roosting in some spots.
Use Effigies
Fake owls, snakes or dead vultures can mimic predation pressure, making the live vultures uneasy and less likely to roost. The effigies need to be moved around every few days to remain effective.
Apply Roost Dispersal Chemicals
For persistent roosts, specialized chemicals like Bird-X Avian Roost are sprayed to irritate the vultures’ feet and pelage, causing them to abandon the treated location. Several applications may be required.
Seek Professional Help
For serious infestations that don’t respond to self-help measures, vulture roost control experts can assess your property and implement tailored commercial-grade deterrents as needed. This may greatly increase the odds of getting the birds to move on.
Why Relocation Usually Isn’t an Option
It’s rarely feasible to permanently trap and relocate established vulture roosts. Here’s why this approach tends to fail:
- Not a viable solution for wide-ranging species
- New vultures would replace any captured individuals
- Stress of relocation can make relocated vultures die
- Capturing and handling federally protected species like condors is prohibited
- Relocated birds often return or roost elsewhere in the area
- Requires special permitting and coordination with authorities
For these reasons, relocation is usually avoided in favor of on-site vulture deterrence methods instead. The goal is to make the specific roost site undesirable while allowing the vultures to live freely.
Why Vultures Are a Protected Species
All vulture species are federally protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It is illegal to harm, harass or kill vultures without appropriate permits. Here are some reasons why vultures are recognized as vital wildlife that is legally conserved:
- Help control populations of rodents, insects and other pests as scavengers
- Prevent spread of diseases by safely disposing of carrion
- Provide valuable early warnings of toxins or disease outbreaks as sentinel species
- Enable nutrient cycling from carcasses back into the environment
- Turkey vultures help indicate restoration success by recolonizing recovering areas
- Many species like California condors face endangerment and need active conservation
So while vulture activities can cause issues for property owners at times, these unique birds remain protected across North America because of their indispensable ecosystem services.
Conclusion
In summary, vultures are prone to roosting on houses, barns and other structures as convenient places to perch, socialize and scan for food from an elevated vantage point. Their droppings and presence over time can present problems for homes or businesses. There are various tactics, from scare devices to roost dispersal chemicals, that can be attempted to deter vultures from using a particular site as a roost. But given the protected legal status of these ecologically important avian scavengers, all deterrence must be conducted in a selective, non-lethal manner. With some persistence and adaptability in applying recommended techniques, homeowners can successfully convince unwelcome vulture roosts to move on and reduce issues from the birds without causing them harm.