How does the turkey vulture see?

The turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) is a bird in the order Accipitriformes. Its eyes belong to the vision type Raptor telephoto: 4 cones (violet-sensitive), 2 foveas (deep central + temporal), the highest acuity measured, 35-50 deg binocular.

Measured in this species: sharpness, field of view, foveas and night vision. Measured core: measured values on at least 3 of the 6 dials. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.

Sample scene drawn in code: a face with red lips, a green shirt, red and green apples, flowers and a colour strip, as a person sees it. — The sample scene as a person sees it.

The same sample scene rendered by the See Like Animals engine for the turkey vulture's eyes, using the values in the table below. — The same scene rendered for the turkey vulture (60° field of view, daylight).

See your photo as the turkey vultureThis species is part of the full catalogue in the tool (full unlock). Your photo stays on your device.

What stands out

It has 4 colour receptor classes; people have 3.
Its sharpest vision resolves 14.9 cycles per degree: the finest stripe pattern it can tell apart from grey.
Its eyes cover about 259° around the head, with 30° seen by both eyes at once.
It stops seeing flicker at 77.7 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks about 1.3 times slower to it.^[15][16]
Activity pattern: diurnal.

The six dials

Evidence levels: how the tiers work. "Measured" means a value measured in this species; "Estimated" values come from a close relative or an eye-size formula.

Vision values for the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura), catalogue-v1
Dial	Value	Evidence	Sources
Colour	Colour receptors 4 receptor classes: 405 nm (VS/SWS (violet)), 449 nm (SWS (blue)), 504 nm (MWS (green)), 567 nm (LWS (long)) receptor set of nearest measured relative Buteo buteo (same order Accipitriformes)	Group default	^[1][2]
Sharpness	Acuity 14.9 cycles per degree median of 2 anatomical-ganglion rows (method priority rule)	Measured	^[3][4]
Field of view	Binocular overlap 30° median of 1 rows (eyes-at-rest rows preferred)	Measured	^[5]
	Total field of view 259° rule: total = 2 x monocular field - binocular overlap (round-1 B12)	Derived	^[6][5]
	Blind area behind the head 101° blind area = 360 - total field	Derived	^[6][5]
	Eye placement lateral frontal if binocular overlap >= 60 deg, else lateral	Derived	^[5]
Sharp zones (foveas)	Number of foveas 1 retinal topography	Measured (not re-verified)	^[7]
Sharp zones (foveas)	Fovea type deep central only	Measured (not re-verified)	^[7]
Night vision	Activity pattern diurnal mode of 6 rows (of 6 rows): diurnal; not_nocturnal	Measured (not re-verified)	^{[8][9][10][11][12][13]}
Night vision	Rods vs cones cone-dominated nocturnal -> rod-dominated; crepuscular / cathemeral / mixed -> mixed; diurnal -> cone-dominated	Derived	^{[8][9][10][11][12][13]}
Motion (flicker fusion)	Flicker fusion frequency 77.7 Hz median of 1 relatives in order Accipitriformes: Parabuteo unicinctus	Group default	^[14]

Related animals

Harris's hawk same vision type
Black kite same vision type
Egyptian vulture same vision type
Griffon vulture same vision type
Red-tailed hawk same vision type
Bald eagle same vision type

More birds: all birds with measured vision data.

Sources

Lind O, Mitkus M, Olsson P, Kelber A. 2014. Ultraviolet vision in birds: the importance of transparent eye media. Proc R Soc B 281:20132209. Table 1. doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.2209
Longcore T. 2023. A compendium of photopigment peak sensitivities and visual spectral response curves of terrestrial wildlife to guide design of outdoor nighttime lighting. Basic Appl Ecol 73:40-50. doi:10.1016/j.baae.2023.09.002. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8432720
Caves EM, Brandley NC, Johnsen S (2018) Visual acuity and the evolution of signals. Trends Ecol Evol 33:358-372. Supplementary Tables S1-S3.. doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2018.03.001
Caves EM, Fernandez-Juricic E, Kelley LA (2024) Ecological and morphological correlates of visual acuity in birds. J Exp Biol 227(2): jeb246063. Supplementary Table S1.. doi.org/10.1242/jeb.246063
Potier S, Roulin A, Martin GR, Portugal SJ, Bonhomme V, Bouchet T, de Romans R, Meyrier E, Kelber A. 2023. Binocular field configuration in owls: the role of foraging ecology. Proc R Soc B 290: 20230664. Data figshare.. doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0664
Potier S, Duriez O, Cunningham GB, et al. 2018. J Exp Biol 221:jeb177295. doi.org/10.1242/jeb.177295
Potier S, Mitkus M, Bonadonna F, Duriez O, Isard P-F, Dulaurent T, Mentek M, Kelber A 2017. Eye size, fovea, and foraging ecology in accipitriform raptors. Brain Behav Evol 90: 232-242. Supplementary material (Tables S1, S2).. doi.org/10.1159/000479783
Anderson SR, Wiens JJ. 2017. Out of the dark: 350 million years of conservatism and evolution in diel activity patterns in vertebrates. Evolution 71:1944-1959. Dryad doi:10.5061/dryad.fg700. doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fg700
Angielczyk KD, Schmitz L 2014. Nocturnality in synapsids predates the origin of mammals by over 100 million years. Proc R Soc B 281: 20141642. Dryad doi:10.5061/dryad.1v8kj.. doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.1642
Light conditions and the evolution of the visual system in birds (figshare dataset, SupplementaryDataset1). doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22116371.v3
Wilman H, Belmaker J, Simpson J, de la Rosa C, Rivadeneira MM, Jetz W. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027. BirdFuncDat.txt. doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1
Schmitz & Motani 2011. Nocturnality in dinosaurs inferred from scleral ring and orbit morphology. Science 332:705. Comparative data redeposited in Xing et al. 2020 supplementary information (Zenodo).. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3591994
Moura et al. 2024. A phylogeny-informed characterisation of global tetrapod traits addresses data gaps and biases. PLoS Biol 22:e3002658. TetrapodTraits v3.0.1.. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22536349
Lafitte A, Sordello R, Legrand M, Nicolas V, Obein G, Reyjol Y. 2022. A flashing light may not be that flashy: A systematic review on critical fusion frequencies. PLoS ONE 17(12): e0279718. S10 File (CFF database). doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279718
Healy K, McNally L, Ruxton GD, Cooper N, Jackson AL. 2013. Metabolic rate and body size are linked with perception of temporal information. Animal Behaviour 86:685-696. Table 1. doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.06.018
Inger R, Bennie J, Davies TW, Gaston KJ. 2014. Potential biological and ecological effects of flickering artificial light. PLoS ONE 9(5): e98631. Table 3. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098631

Every value cites its sources (all sources). Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this?