Encyclopedia > Cathartidae

Article Content

New World vulture

Redirected from Cathartidae

New World vultures

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Accipitriformes
Family:	Cathartidae

Genera
Cathartes Coragyps Gymnogyps Sarcorhamphus

The New World vulture family Cathartidae contains seven species found in North and South America. It includes five vultures and two condors.

New World vultures are not closely related to Old World vultures or other diurnal raptors, which are in different orders. They resemble Old World vulture because of convergent evolution.

The five species of vulture are:

Turkey Vulture Cathartes Aura
Greater Yellow-headed Vulture[?] Cathartes melambrotus
Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture[?] Cathartes burrovianus
King Vulture[?] Sarcorhamphus papa
American Black Vulture Coragyps atratus

The Condors are

Californian Condor Gymnogyps californianus
Andean Condor Sarcorhamphus gryphus

There is some debate over the scientific names of the Condors.

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!