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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Well, I’ll be damn. No, the subject line isn’t the name of the new hip hop group. I have been watching birds and wildlife for half a century and today I saw something completely new and unexpected: vultures sneeze. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I have heard that chirping in birds might have some other purpose besides intra-species communication; clearing of the airways analogous to mammal’s sneezing. But that wouldn’t apply to non-chirpers such as carnivorous birds in general.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Vultures are difficult to observe beasts; they don’t like people much. A vulture had a snake in my neighbor’s backyard this morning. As he was devouring his snake he did something that looks exactly like a mammalian sneeze: with the side-to-side head shaking immediately after the discharge, a little like what dogs, cats and humans sometimes do.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I went for my video camera and made a bunch of video, but none of it is particularly YouTube-able. That sneeze would have been, but he didn’t repeat the behavior.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Conclusion: at least one example of a species of carnivorous bird sneezes.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>