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Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas 1
Atlas 1 data collected from 1975-1979
Black Vulture
Coragyps atratus Egg Dates:
Number of broods:
One of the most recent additions to the list
of Massachusetts breeding birds is the Black
Vulture. Norman Smith confirmed the first
nesting of this species in the Commonwealth in the Blue Hills Reservation,
Milton, Norfolk County, in 1998. The
continued presence of two to three suspicious-
acting adults near a rocky ledge
eventually led to the discovery of a nest on
June 23. A single young fledged on August 2.
Black Vultures have been gradually
expanding their breeding range northward
from the south. The species was first confirmed
as a breeder in New Jersey in 1981
(Walsh et al 1999), and by 1995 nesting was
suspected in western Connecticut (AB). The
regular presence of several Black Vultures in
the Sheffield area of southern Berkshire
County during the summers of 1998 and
1999 could presage further Bay State nesting
attempts. Surprisingly, this species has not
been documented as a breeding species in
New York.
The status of Black Vultures in Massachusetts
prior to the first successful nesting in
1998 was that of rare to very uncommon
nearly annual visitors, at least since the
1950s. The species can appear in any season
the year and has occurred in every county
in the state. Although most records are in
midsummer and fall, there are a few winter
records, including one to two in Turkey
Vulture roosts in Randolph during the mid-
1990s, not far from the Blue Hills nesting
location.
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Copyright © 2003 edited by Wayne R. Petersen and W. Roger Meservey. Published by the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Distributed by the University of Massachusetts Press, P.O. Box 429, Amherst, Massachusetts 01004-0429.
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