Post by hi224 on Oct 7, 2020 22:21:21 GMT
If you’ve never seen the King Vulture (S. papa), you’re in for a treat. Looking more like a child’s felt art then a real bird, this new world vulture lives in Central and South America, among tropical lowland forests, near swamps and marshy places, though they have also been observed in the Amazon Rainforest and open savannas and grassland.
nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/news/fun-facts-about-king-vultures (pictures of the Smithsonian’s painted vulture, for your viewing amusement)
The King Vulture is a member of the genus Sarcoramphus, which today contains only the King Vulture, but in the past, had a much wider range. A fossil of the Kern Vulture (S. kernense) was located in Kern County, CA, from the Pliocene era (3.5 to 2.5 million years ago). Another fossil of S. fisheri has been found in the Pleistocene era in Peru. Lastly, fossils of Sarcoramphus vultures have been found in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, dating to the Pliestocene era. It has been theorized that these could have been early King Vultures, or possibly another Sarcoramphus vulture.
The most mysterious member of Sarcoramphus is not the Kern Vulture, or S. fisheri, though little is known about them. Instead, this honor goes to S. sacra, otherwise known as Bartram’s Painted Vulture.
While far less of a household name then his later colleague, John James Audubon, William Bartram was an American botanist, ornithologist, natural historian, and explorer. He is most famous for his book, Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws. Containing an Account of the Soil and Natural Productions of Those Regions; Together with Observations on the Manners of the Indians, or more commonly Bartram’s Travels. In this book, he chronicled his explorations of the southern British Colonies from 1773 to 1777, and was credited as the first naturalist to penetrate the Florida tropical forests.
In Bartram’s Travels, he described two vultures yet unknown to science. One was the ubiquitous Black Vulture (C. atratus), today widespread from New England down to Chile. The other was the infamous Painted Vulture, alternatively referred to as the Croped Vulture. It was described as having a red crown, yellow bill, gold iris, as well as a yellow, red, and purple neck. The plumage was a white cream, and the tail was white with black tips. Sound familiar?
Bartram observed this bird along the St. John’s River region, and described how it feasted on lizards and snakes killed by fire. The Muscogee Natives (written in Bartram’s Travels as Muscogulges, or the Creeks), were said to create headdresses using the distinctive tail feathers of the bird to carry into battle.
However, while later ornithologists didn’t contest the bird’s description, few included it in their works. Alexander Wilson, a protege of Bartram’s, never visited Florida, and thus never included it in his American Ornithology. Charles Lucien Bonaparte never saw the bird, but he did include a message in his four-volume supplement to Wilson’s American Ornithology that indicated that the King Vulture has been observed in the southern United States. The species was also absent from John James Audubon’s The Birds of America and Ornithological Biography, despite the fact Audubon visited Florida in the 1830’s.
Bartram was not the only ornithologist who mentioned the Painted Vulture. Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot concurred with Bartram’s description of the Painted Vulture as a separate species. Thomas Nuttall mentioned the Painted Vulture in his discussion of the King Vulture. John Cassin also accepted Bartram’s description as valid, and believed the dark tail of the Painted Vulture made it distinct from a King Vulture.
Most importantly, the Painted Vulture was possibly described before Bartram, by Eleazar Albin, in 1734, which Bartram was likely unaware of. He calls his new bird the Warwovwen or Indian Vulture. Both of the descriptions of the birds were very similar, with no major discrepancies.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sarcorhamphus_sacer_Albin.jpg (a drawing of Albin’s Warwovwen, done by Albin himself)
Despite many of these discrepancies, the Painted Vulture was widely thought of as valid throughout the mid-19th century, though its relationship to the King Vulture was widely unknown. But, in 1871, Joel Asaph Allen, the first president of the American Ornithological Society (AOU), described the bird as a “purely mythical species.” Despite collecting intensively along St. John’s River, Allen failed to find the vulture, and likewise believed Bartram was mistaken, or had invented the bird. Considering Allen’s impressive reputation, his remarks found a home among other ornithologists. Charles Maynard suggested that Bartram could have been describing the Northern Caracara, a bird that Bartram had not reported in Florida, despite being collected by Audubon. Arthur Howell was also dismissive of the Painted Vulture, and hypothesized that Bartram either drew on his imagination, or drew a bird described by others in his Birds of Florida. Even today, the AOU does not recognize the Painted Vulture as either an extinct or living bird.
So, what was the Painted Vulture? An invention of Bartram? A mistake? A population of King Vultures in Florida? Or perhaps, a new species?
Bartram’s Invention
While this possibility must be considered, the idea that Bartram invented the Painted Vulture seems unlikely, especially considering Albin’s separate description of his Warwovwen. Bartram describes this bird as “not mentioned in history,” making it unlikely that he knew of Albin’s description. If there were truly two independent accounts of the same bird, it is more likely that the bird exists then two people made up the same bird.
Another possible sighting of the Painted Vulture was a description of a vulture in the collection of Hans Sloane, an Irish naturalist, by George Edwards in 1743. Edwards believes that the bird in the collection was Albin’s Warwovwen, although he describes the tail as wholly black, as supposed to Albin’s description of black tips. The exact origin of the bird is unknown, Edwards is even told the bird comes from the East Indies (Southeast Asia), however he believes that the bird is from the West Indies (Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico).
It is, of course, possible that Albin invented the bird based off the King Vulture, and Edwards misidentified a King Vulture as a Painted Vulture, and Bartram copied Albin’s description, but that seems unlikely at best.
Bartram’s Misidentification
Charles Maynard, a critic of Bartram’s Painted Vulture, suggested that the Painted Vulture could have actually been the Northern Caracara. This bird still exists in Florida, and has been described regularly by other ornithologists, including Audubon. Northern Caracaras have also been seen eating animals killed by fire, like Bartram’s Painted Vulture. Both possess white color at the base of the tail, but outside of that, they differ in almost every respect. Considering Bartram very accurately described the Black Vulture, it seems unlikely that he would be so off in his description of his Painted Vulture. Furthermore, even if he did mistake the Northern Caracara as a vulture, what did Albin see?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_crested_caracara (Pictures of the Northern Caracara)
A King Vulture Family Vacation
Today, the range of the king vulture is exclusively in Central and South America, but historically, it is very possible that they could have once inhabited Florida. The habitat there is not very different from the current habitat of the King Vulture, and while King Vultures have not been described as having white with black-tipped tails, genetic drift of an isolated population could easily describe any discrepancies. Both Albin’s picture and Bartram’s description line very closely with the King vulture, outside of the tail.
Additionally, there have been some suggestions of a Painted Vulture-like bird in other parts of the Southern United States, suggesting their range may be much larger. It is known that King Vultures were once found widely in Mexico, but are now no longer found there, and fossil records suggest that their range could have been much wider.
Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz, a historian and naturalist best known for his Histoire de la Louisiane described a “white eagle” in Louisiana, whose feathers were tipped with black, and prized by natives. Many believe that this 1758 description of a “white eagle” was referring to a bird with a hooked beak, although none was specifically mentioned. The only white bird with a hooked bill in the region was the American White Pelican, whose large bill would have made it very distinct from other birds. Not only does this description align closely with the Painted Vulture, the description of use by native tribes also aligns closely with Bartram’s mention of the feathers appearing in native headdresses.
Lastly, a 1906 archaeological find from a prehistorical Moundsville site in Tuscaloosa County, AL, is a limestone bowl recovered in pieces with a stone head resembling the head and neck of a King Vulture - or Painted Vulture. While some have suggested that this bowl could also resemble a wild turkey, and even ardent believers in the Painted Vulture caution making identifications of stylistic animals, there is no contemporary bird species that has both the curved vulturine/raptorial bill and the fleshy lappets of the forehead seen on the animal. Furthermore, while hard to count, the lines on the edge of the tail indicate twelve tail feathers, as opposed to the eighteen tail feathers found on turkeys.
www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/m-8023 (the possible Painted Vulture bowl)
S. sacra - A New Species?
Having just made the case for a King Vulture-like bird being found in South America, it is unknown whether this possible bird was a subspecies of a King Vulture, or a separate Sarcoramphus vulture. Classifying animals as different species tends to be more of an art then a science even among animals that still exist, and trying to determine the species of an extinct animal is even harder, especially considering the lack of fossil evidence. It is entirely possible that the Painted Vulture found by Bartram in Florida, and possibly extending across the Southeast United States was a related but separate species from the King Vulture.
What Happened to the Vulture?
After about 1800, the vulture has not been observed by any ornithologist. The next extensive ornithological study of the region was Audubon’s study in the early 1830’s, when the bird was not located by Audubon, although Thomas Nuttall reported secondhand accounts of it along the Gulf Coast in 1832. This leaves over 50 years for the bird to have gone extinct. Bartram also never commented on the abundance of the birds, so it is possible that they could have been on the decline when sighted by Bartram. America has lost many birds since this time, including the Passenger Pigeon, and the Carolina Parakeet, so the extinction of a species (or subspecies) of birds in America is certainly not unheard of. Bartram described them as easy to kill when gathered by fires, and their feathers were highly in demand as ceremonial objects. The cold weather of 1835 had also been cited as a possible extinction event for these birds.
So, what was the Painted Vulture? An invention of Bartram’s, influenced by earlier ornithologists? A King Vulture subspecies once spread across the southeastern United States, or a separate Sarcoramphus species. Perhaps, most fancifully, some imagine this funny-looking bird still exists, in the sparsely populated tropical forests that still remain in Florida, waiting for someone to stumble across them and wonder what preschool brought their crafts to life.
Sources
dvoc.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Cassinia_74-75_Bartrams-Painted-Vulture.pdf
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_vulture
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24698902/
academic.oup.com/auk/article-abstract/59/1/104/5239299?redirectedFrom=PDF
www.jstor.org/stable/4079172?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=painted%20vulture&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dpainted%2Bvulture%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26fc%3Doff%26group%3Dnone&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_SYC-5462%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Adcd045fc3114902e6f14e79f0357612e
nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/news/fun-facts-about-king-vultures (pictures of the Smithsonian’s painted vulture, for your viewing amusement)
The King Vulture is a member of the genus Sarcoramphus, which today contains only the King Vulture, but in the past, had a much wider range. A fossil of the Kern Vulture (S. kernense) was located in Kern County, CA, from the Pliocene era (3.5 to 2.5 million years ago). Another fossil of S. fisheri has been found in the Pleistocene era in Peru. Lastly, fossils of Sarcoramphus vultures have been found in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, dating to the Pliestocene era. It has been theorized that these could have been early King Vultures, or possibly another Sarcoramphus vulture.
The most mysterious member of Sarcoramphus is not the Kern Vulture, or S. fisheri, though little is known about them. Instead, this honor goes to S. sacra, otherwise known as Bartram’s Painted Vulture.
While far less of a household name then his later colleague, John James Audubon, William Bartram was an American botanist, ornithologist, natural historian, and explorer. He is most famous for his book, Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws. Containing an Account of the Soil and Natural Productions of Those Regions; Together with Observations on the Manners of the Indians, or more commonly Bartram’s Travels. In this book, he chronicled his explorations of the southern British Colonies from 1773 to 1777, and was credited as the first naturalist to penetrate the Florida tropical forests.
In Bartram’s Travels, he described two vultures yet unknown to science. One was the ubiquitous Black Vulture (C. atratus), today widespread from New England down to Chile. The other was the infamous Painted Vulture, alternatively referred to as the Croped Vulture. It was described as having a red crown, yellow bill, gold iris, as well as a yellow, red, and purple neck. The plumage was a white cream, and the tail was white with black tips. Sound familiar?
Bartram observed this bird along the St. John’s River region, and described how it feasted on lizards and snakes killed by fire. The Muscogee Natives (written in Bartram’s Travels as Muscogulges, or the Creeks), were said to create headdresses using the distinctive tail feathers of the bird to carry into battle.
However, while later ornithologists didn’t contest the bird’s description, few included it in their works. Alexander Wilson, a protege of Bartram’s, never visited Florida, and thus never included it in his American Ornithology. Charles Lucien Bonaparte never saw the bird, but he did include a message in his four-volume supplement to Wilson’s American Ornithology that indicated that the King Vulture has been observed in the southern United States. The species was also absent from John James Audubon’s The Birds of America and Ornithological Biography, despite the fact Audubon visited Florida in the 1830’s.
Bartram was not the only ornithologist who mentioned the Painted Vulture. Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot concurred with Bartram’s description of the Painted Vulture as a separate species. Thomas Nuttall mentioned the Painted Vulture in his discussion of the King Vulture. John Cassin also accepted Bartram’s description as valid, and believed the dark tail of the Painted Vulture made it distinct from a King Vulture.
Most importantly, the Painted Vulture was possibly described before Bartram, by Eleazar Albin, in 1734, which Bartram was likely unaware of. He calls his new bird the Warwovwen or Indian Vulture. Both of the descriptions of the birds were very similar, with no major discrepancies.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sarcorhamphus_sacer_Albin.jpg (a drawing of Albin’s Warwovwen, done by Albin himself)
Despite many of these discrepancies, the Painted Vulture was widely thought of as valid throughout the mid-19th century, though its relationship to the King Vulture was widely unknown. But, in 1871, Joel Asaph Allen, the first president of the American Ornithological Society (AOU), described the bird as a “purely mythical species.” Despite collecting intensively along St. John’s River, Allen failed to find the vulture, and likewise believed Bartram was mistaken, or had invented the bird. Considering Allen’s impressive reputation, his remarks found a home among other ornithologists. Charles Maynard suggested that Bartram could have been describing the Northern Caracara, a bird that Bartram had not reported in Florida, despite being collected by Audubon. Arthur Howell was also dismissive of the Painted Vulture, and hypothesized that Bartram either drew on his imagination, or drew a bird described by others in his Birds of Florida. Even today, the AOU does not recognize the Painted Vulture as either an extinct or living bird.
So, what was the Painted Vulture? An invention of Bartram? A mistake? A population of King Vultures in Florida? Or perhaps, a new species?
Bartram’s Invention
While this possibility must be considered, the idea that Bartram invented the Painted Vulture seems unlikely, especially considering Albin’s separate description of his Warwovwen. Bartram describes this bird as “not mentioned in history,” making it unlikely that he knew of Albin’s description. If there were truly two independent accounts of the same bird, it is more likely that the bird exists then two people made up the same bird.
Another possible sighting of the Painted Vulture was a description of a vulture in the collection of Hans Sloane, an Irish naturalist, by George Edwards in 1743. Edwards believes that the bird in the collection was Albin’s Warwovwen, although he describes the tail as wholly black, as supposed to Albin’s description of black tips. The exact origin of the bird is unknown, Edwards is even told the bird comes from the East Indies (Southeast Asia), however he believes that the bird is from the West Indies (Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico).
It is, of course, possible that Albin invented the bird based off the King Vulture, and Edwards misidentified a King Vulture as a Painted Vulture, and Bartram copied Albin’s description, but that seems unlikely at best.
Bartram’s Misidentification
Charles Maynard, a critic of Bartram’s Painted Vulture, suggested that the Painted Vulture could have actually been the Northern Caracara. This bird still exists in Florida, and has been described regularly by other ornithologists, including Audubon. Northern Caracaras have also been seen eating animals killed by fire, like Bartram’s Painted Vulture. Both possess white color at the base of the tail, but outside of that, they differ in almost every respect. Considering Bartram very accurately described the Black Vulture, it seems unlikely that he would be so off in his description of his Painted Vulture. Furthermore, even if he did mistake the Northern Caracara as a vulture, what did Albin see?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_crested_caracara (Pictures of the Northern Caracara)
A King Vulture Family Vacation
Today, the range of the king vulture is exclusively in Central and South America, but historically, it is very possible that they could have once inhabited Florida. The habitat there is not very different from the current habitat of the King Vulture, and while King Vultures have not been described as having white with black-tipped tails, genetic drift of an isolated population could easily describe any discrepancies. Both Albin’s picture and Bartram’s description line very closely with the King vulture, outside of the tail.
Additionally, there have been some suggestions of a Painted Vulture-like bird in other parts of the Southern United States, suggesting their range may be much larger. It is known that King Vultures were once found widely in Mexico, but are now no longer found there, and fossil records suggest that their range could have been much wider.
Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz, a historian and naturalist best known for his Histoire de la Louisiane described a “white eagle” in Louisiana, whose feathers were tipped with black, and prized by natives. Many believe that this 1758 description of a “white eagle” was referring to a bird with a hooked beak, although none was specifically mentioned. The only white bird with a hooked bill in the region was the American White Pelican, whose large bill would have made it very distinct from other birds. Not only does this description align closely with the Painted Vulture, the description of use by native tribes also aligns closely with Bartram’s mention of the feathers appearing in native headdresses.
Lastly, a 1906 archaeological find from a prehistorical Moundsville site in Tuscaloosa County, AL, is a limestone bowl recovered in pieces with a stone head resembling the head and neck of a King Vulture - or Painted Vulture. While some have suggested that this bowl could also resemble a wild turkey, and even ardent believers in the Painted Vulture caution making identifications of stylistic animals, there is no contemporary bird species that has both the curved vulturine/raptorial bill and the fleshy lappets of the forehead seen on the animal. Furthermore, while hard to count, the lines on the edge of the tail indicate twelve tail feathers, as opposed to the eighteen tail feathers found on turkeys.
www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/m-8023 (the possible Painted Vulture bowl)
S. sacra - A New Species?
Having just made the case for a King Vulture-like bird being found in South America, it is unknown whether this possible bird was a subspecies of a King Vulture, or a separate Sarcoramphus vulture. Classifying animals as different species tends to be more of an art then a science even among animals that still exist, and trying to determine the species of an extinct animal is even harder, especially considering the lack of fossil evidence. It is entirely possible that the Painted Vulture found by Bartram in Florida, and possibly extending across the Southeast United States was a related but separate species from the King Vulture.
What Happened to the Vulture?
After about 1800, the vulture has not been observed by any ornithologist. The next extensive ornithological study of the region was Audubon’s study in the early 1830’s, when the bird was not located by Audubon, although Thomas Nuttall reported secondhand accounts of it along the Gulf Coast in 1832. This leaves over 50 years for the bird to have gone extinct. Bartram also never commented on the abundance of the birds, so it is possible that they could have been on the decline when sighted by Bartram. America has lost many birds since this time, including the Passenger Pigeon, and the Carolina Parakeet, so the extinction of a species (or subspecies) of birds in America is certainly not unheard of. Bartram described them as easy to kill when gathered by fires, and their feathers were highly in demand as ceremonial objects. The cold weather of 1835 had also been cited as a possible extinction event for these birds.
So, what was the Painted Vulture? An invention of Bartram’s, influenced by earlier ornithologists? A King Vulture subspecies once spread across the southeastern United States, or a separate Sarcoramphus species. Perhaps, most fancifully, some imagine this funny-looking bird still exists, in the sparsely populated tropical forests that still remain in Florida, waiting for someone to stumble across them and wonder what preschool brought their crafts to life.
Sources
dvoc.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Cassinia_74-75_Bartrams-Painted-Vulture.pdf
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_vulture
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24698902/
academic.oup.com/auk/article-abstract/59/1/104/5239299?redirectedFrom=PDF
www.jstor.org/stable/4079172?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=painted%20vulture&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dpainted%2Bvulture%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26fc%3Doff%26group%3Dnone&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_SYC-5462%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Adcd045fc3114902e6f14e79f0357612e