Darling bird. :>

she's fun, she's a biter and quite feisty, but she's extremely clever, and quite beautiful, I love it when she suns herself like that.

Oh, I bet she is fun. :>

thats not 'sunning', thats a territorial display called 'mantling'. it is ment to make her look bigger to predators and other birds as well as things bigger than herself. YOU would be bigger than her. birds of this size and raptors in general will often do this over things they 'claim' such as a fresh kill.

by all means it is quite impresive and very beautiful. but it is not 'sunning'.

I've been working at MRCC for almost 3 years now and have studied behaviors of birds of prey for equally as long. Turkey Vultures are known to sun themselves, as are other species of Vulture, it helps them produce Vitamin D, disinfect their feathers, and warm their bodies up.
It's not mantling, I've seen mantling displays before. Sammy, the Red-Tailed Hawk educational bird we have there mantles her food quite often when she's fed. Every time Pilgrim spreads her wings like this she has no food (birds of prey only mantle when they have food), and her back is to the sun, not to me.
If she was being territorial she'd come after me and not just stand there.
If a bird of prey is afraid of something, the first instinct is to fly away, even if they can't fly. If they're in a small enclosure and can't fly away then they face you, fluff out their feathers and open their beak to look bigger. Some also lean back a bit so they can strike out with their talons if they need to. Turkey Vultures have claws, but not the sharp talons that other birds of prey have.

Nice picture of Pilgrim sunning!

I love it when turkey vultures sun themselves like that.

me too