One lady wrote us that she has built a small wooden tower-like feeder in her back yard and puts out food for her friends each day. One day she noticed that after eating their breakfast, the vultures had gone down to the lawn in her yard and six of them were in a circle around a soccer-size ball left on the lawn by her grandchildren. The vultures were hitting the ball back and forth to each other by butting it with their head and beak. Each day thereafter they played this game. And although there were four balls of different colors, they always picked the orange one.
Turkey Vultures are affectionate and often make good pets.
When a bird is injured and taken into rehab he will become emotionally attached to his handler and follow him around and watch him, much like a pet dog. An experienced caretaker at a nature park in Florida wrote that she worked with a Turkey Vulture which had lost a wing and a toe. She said that in two months she taught the vulture more than she had been able to teach a red-tailed hawk in eight months. This person contacted a caretaker at another park in Florida and learned that she had exactly the same experience in training vultures and hawks. The turkey vulture is easy to recognize when it's flying low or is on the ground and the bald red head is clearly visible.