About a year ago I went to a 'Birds of Prey' live show and learned about a bunch of predatory birds, including vultures and came away thinking vultures were way neater than I gave them credit for previously. Then recently I was driving to work when I saw some vultures circling not far from the road and that renewed my interest so I decided to look for a library book about vultures.

This book was a good overview about these cool birds. I knew a little bit about them going into it based on that live show, but I definitely learned new facts almost instantly. For example, I did not realize that condors were considered part of the vulture family. Nor did I know how prevalent they are with habitats as diverse as savannas, rain forests, deserts, and more.

The book is broken down into relatively short chapters with subsections within them. Each subsection has a heading and is typically about a page long. This is good for young readers who might want to pause in reading with an easy spot to leave off / pick back up. More scientific or unusual words are in red font and then defined in a glossary at the back of the book. An index rounds out the backmatter along with a world map of where vultures live.

The illustrations in this book are gorgeous with full-color, full-page photographs of various different types of vultures (including one baby vulture) doing various things like gliding, feeding, nest building, etc. Sometimes this does include some slightly bloody bones or carcasses so some readers might think "ew" but in a book about vultures, it's kind of par for the course. ( )