Turkey Vultures "Critically Imperiled"? (& other incorrect listings?)

General
1

This is my first post on the forum, so please let me know if this is the right category! Thanks!

Today I was doing some bird identifications for my
home state, when I came across something strange. I identified a bird as Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) and suddenly the location was obscured.

Upon further investigation, I discovered that iNaturalist has Turkey Vulture classified as “Critically Imperiled” in Indiana. It cited NatureServe as the source for this information.

At this point, I decided to ask @snake_smeuse if they knew anything. I see Turkey Vultures almost daily in the summer, so I can’t believe there is anything truly threatening their presence.

@snake_smeuse did some investigating for me and found that NatureServe cites Indiana Natural Heritage Data Center as the source for this information. However, their website doesn’t have anything mentioning Turkey Vultures (besides a children’s book about Ospreys?). I’d expect there to be something substantial if the birds truly are at such high risk of disappearance.

I’d like to know if there is any way I can pursue removal of this misleading listing on iNaturalist (and NatureServe as well).

Have any of you found any other incorrect conservation listings on the site? Were those mistakes ever corrected?

1 Like
2

It does appear that turkey vultures aren’t listed for Indiana:
https://www.in.gov/dnr/fish-and-wildlife/nongame-and-endangered-wildlife/species-of-greatest-conservation-need/
https://www.in.gov/dnr/fish-and-wildlife/nongame-and-endangered-wildlife/birds/birds-of-indiana-list/

The best way to address conservation status for a given species if you aren’t a curator is to raise a flag on the taxon on iNaturalist itself explaining what the conservation status should be and include reasons/sources. So I would suggest doing that for Turkey Vulture with the info that you’ve provided here and noting that the NatureServe status appears to be incorrect.

I’m not sure how one would go about letting NatureServe know that they seem to have an error, but that would be something good to pursue.

1 Like
3

NatureServe seems to have a number of odd listings. Some of them, from what I can tell, are the result of old information that simply hasn’t been updated. I don’t know if Turkey Vultures have ever been listed in Indiana, but I do know that they’ve been spreading northwards for several decades now – it’s possible that they used to be rare birds…

1 Like