Vulture

The Private Life of an Unloved Bird

Katie Fallon

Few animals have a worse reputation than the vulture. But is it deserved? With Vulture, Katie Fallon offers an irresistible argument to the contrary, tracing a year in the life of a typical North American turkey vulture. Turkey vultures, also known as buzzards, are the most widely distributed and abundant scavenging birds of prey on the planet, found from central Canada to the southern tip of Argentina and nearly everywhere in between. Deftly drawing on the most up-to-date scientific papers and articles and weaving those in with interviews with world-renowned raptor and vulture experts and her own compelling natural history writing, Fallon examines all aspects of the bird’s natural history: breeding, incubating eggs, raising chicks, migrating, and roosting. The result is an intimate portrait of an underappreciated bird—one you’ll never look at in the same way again.

Paper: $24.95 | E-book: $19.95

ISBN-13: 9781684580330

Pages: 256 | Size: 5.5 in. x 8.5 in.

Date Published: August 4, 2020

Imprint:

Brandeis University Press

Through thorough research, interviews, and firsthand experience, Fallon establishes unquestionable credibility; however, it is her own narrative writing and descriptive skills that make Vulture a book that is not only educational and inspiring, but readable and entertaining.

The Los Angeles Review

Reviews

This enthusiastic volume nicely proves that Turkey Vultures are spokesbirds for vultures and indicates new avenues for raptor studies in a rapidly changing world. This book should be on the shelves of ecologists, ornithologists, and conservationists.

Conservation Biology
Through thorough research, interviews, and firsthand experience, Fallon establishes unquestionable credibility; however, it is her own narrative writing and descriptive skills that make Vulture a book that is not only educational and inspiring, but readable and entertaining.

The Los Angeles Review
Fallon truly loves these skillful gliders, and she hopes that readers will see the light. Every time I’ve seen a vulture this year, this book has come to mind, so I guess I’m hooked.

The Exponent Telegram
Fallon’s personal accounts of her field experiences are engrossing and entertaining. . . . Recommended.

CHOICE
This book is about vultures in the human world, but nowhere in the story does the human aspect overly intrude. The great birds are front-and-center, consistently painted in a positive and empathetic light. It is to Fallon’s credit that she is able to coax the reader into the same love affair with vultures that she herself enjoys, without romanticizing her subject to the point of putting off her audience.

Sense of the Misplaced
As highly readable as it is fact-filled. . . . [Vulture’s] biggest strength might be how Fallon manages to share her empathy for these birds without romanticizing them.

Journal of Appalachian Studies
Entertaining, well-researched. . . . [Fallon] displays great passion and enthusiasm yet writes knowingly and dispassionately on the science of her subject in an engaging, literary style.

Library Journal
starred review
... an excellent quick read, suitable not only for bird lovers and naturalists but for anyone with a bit of natural curiosity and an inclination to root for the common, the misunderstood, and the underdog.

Birding Magazine

About the Author

Kathleen Fallon

Katie Fallon is co-founder of the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia, a nonprofit research, education, and rehabilitation center for injured birds. A member of the International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators, she has glove-trained a wide variety of raptor species, including turkey vultures, hawks, owls, and falcons. She is the author, previously, of Cerulean Blues: A Personal Search for a Vanishing Songbird. She lives in West Virginia with her family of human and birds.

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Founded in 1971, Brandeis University Press is a nonprofit publisher dedicated to publishing innovative, high-quality books for a general audience, as well as scholarship that advances knowledge and promotes dialogue in the humanities, arts, and social sciences around the world.

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