Above, a pair of birds circle in the distance. Bryant, hoping they’re not black vultures, is relieved to see they’re only turkey vultures — red-headed and not aggressive.

“Honestly, the black vulture is one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen,” he said. “They’re easy to hate.”

Black vultures, scavengers that sometimes attack and kill sick or newborn animals, didn’t used to be a problem here. But now Bryant frequently sees the birds following a birth. He hasn’t lost a calf in several years, but they’ve killed his animals before. So now he takes measures to stop them.

In some of his fields, he erects a scarecrow of sorts — a dead black vulture — aimed at scaring off the birds. It’s a requirement of his depredation permit through the Kentucky Farm Bureau, which allows him to shoot a few birds a year. The dead bird keeps the live birds away for about a week, but they eventually come back, he said.

It’s a problem that may grow worse for cattle farmers as the scavenging birds’ range expands northward, in part due to climate change. Lobbying groups have been pushing for legislation that would allow landowners to kill more of these birds, which are protected but not endangered. But experts say more research is needed to better understand how the birds impact livestock and how their removal could affect ecosystems.

Warmer winters and changing habitats expanding birds’ range

Black vultures used to mainly live in the southeastern U.S. and farther south in Latin and South America, but over the past century they’ve started to rapidly stretch northward and also west into the desert Southwest, said Andrew Farnsworth, a visiting scientist at Cornell Lab of Ornithology who studies bird migration.

Warmer winters on average, fueled by climate change, are making it easier for the birds to stay in places that used to be too cold for them. What’s more, the human footprint in suburban and rural areas is enriching their habitat: development means cars, and cars mean roadkill. Cattle farms can also offer a buffet of vulnerable animals for vultures that learn the seasonal calving schedule.

“If there’s one thing we’ve learned from a lot of different studies of birds, it’s that they are very good at taking advantage of food resources and remembering where those things are,” Farnsworth said.

Although black vultures are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, they aren’t really a migratory species, he said. Instead, they breed, and some disperse to new areas and settle there.

How farmers have been dealing with it

After losing a calf to a black vulture a decade ago, Tom Karr, who raises cattle near Pomeroy, Ohio, tried to move his fall calving season later in the year in hopes the vultures would be gone by then. But that didn’t help — the birds stay all year, he said.

Until newborn calves are a few days old, “we try to keep them up closer to the barns,” said Joanie Grimes, the owner of a 350-head calf-cow operation in Hillsboro, Ohio. She said they’ve been dealing with the birds for 15 years, but keeping them out of remote fields has helped improve matters.

Annette Ericksen has noticed the black vultures for several years on her property, Twin Maples Farm in Milton, West Virginia, but they haven’t yet lost any animals to them. When they expect calves and lambs, they move the livestock into a barn, and they also use dogs — Great Pyrenees — trained to patrol the fields and the barnyard for raptors that might hurt the animals.

The size of their operation makes it easier to account for every animal, but “any loss would be severely detrimental to our small business,” she wrote in an email.

Local cattlemen’s associations and state farm bureaus often work together to help producers get depredation permits, which allow them to shoot a few birds each year, as long as they keep track of it on paper.

“The difficulty with that is, if the birds show up, by the time you can get your permit, get all that taken care of, the damage is done,” said Brian Shuter, executive vice president of the Indiana Beef Cattle Association. Farmers said calves can be worth hundreds of dollars or upward of $1,000 or $2,000, depending on the breed.

A new bill would let farmers shoot the protected birds with less paperwork

In March, lawmakers in Congress introduced a bill that would let farmers capture or kill any black vulture “in order to prevent death, injury, or destruction to livestock.” Many farmers and others in the cattle industry have supported the move, and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association in July commended the House Natural Resources Committee for advancing the bill.

Farnsworth, of the Cornell lab, said it’s not necessarily a good thing to make it easier to kill black vultures, which he said fill “a super important role” in cleaning up “dead stuff.”

Simply killing the birds, Farnsworth said, may make room for more bothersome predators or scavengers. He said though black vultures can leave behind gory damage, current research doesn’t show that they account for an outsize proportion of livestock deaths.

But many farmers are unwilling to do nothing.

“They just basically eat them alive,” Karr said. “It is so disgusting.”

For the first time, the CDC confirms a person infected with bird flu in the U.S. has acute respiratory symptoms. It is the third human case tied to the dairy cattle H5N1 outbreak and the second case in a dairy farm worker in Michigan.

A rare human case of bird flu has been reported in Texas, after a person come into contact with cattle suspected of being infected. The announcement comes days after federal agencies said the virus had spread to dairy cattle across multiple states, including Texas. 

The Texas Department of State Health Services said the patient’s only experienced symptom was eye inflammation. The person, who has remained unnamed, was tested late last week and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the results over the weekend. The person is now being treated with the antiviral medication oseltamivir, which according to the Mayo Clinic can be used to treat influenza A and B, as well as the swine flu. 

Human cases of bird flu, otherwise known as H5N1, are known to produce a range of symptoms, including mild ones like eye infection and respiratory symptoms, to more severe, such as pneumonia and death, Texas officials said. 

The CDC said this is only the second time that a person in the U.S. has contracted the bird flu, which typically infects wild birds but can spread to domestic species. It has killed millions of birds across the world in its latest outbreak and has also spread to other mammal populations, killing sea lions, seals and even a polar bear. 

Last week federal agencies announced that dairy cattle are the latest animal group to have contracted a strain of the virus. Cattle in Texas, Kansas and Michigan are so far believed to be impacted, marking the first time that dairy cattle in the U.S. have dealt with this particular infection. 

Although it has spread to at least one individual, the Texas health department said it remains “extremely rare” for bird flu to spread from person-to-person. 

“Initial testing shows the virus has not changed in a way to make it more likely to spread among humans,” the department said. “DSHS is providing guidance to affected dairies about how to minimize workers’ exposure and how people who work with affected cattle can monitor for flu-like symptoms and get tested.” 

The last time someone in the U.S. contracted bird flu was in Colorado in 2022. That person was involved in slaughtering poultry presumed to be infected, and later reported feeling fatigued. According to the CDC, that person recovered after being isolated and treated with oseltamivir. 

“Human infections can happen when enough virus gets into a person’s eyes, nose, or mouth, or is inhaled,” the CDC said at the time. “People with close or lengthy unprotected contact (not wearing respiratory or eye protection) with infected birds or places that sick birds or their mucous, saliva, or feces have touched, may be at greater risk of H5N1 virus infection.”

What are the human symptoms of bird flu? 

According to a health alert sent out to clinicians, signs and symptoms of bird flu in humans are similar to that of a typical flu. They include a fever of at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or a feeling of being feverish, and chills, cough, sore throat, runny nose, headaches, fatigue, difficulty breathing, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and seizures. What most notably separates it from the seasonal flu, however, is eye redness, otherwise known as conjunctivitis. 

“Because of this, healthcare providers including optometrists and ophthalmologists, should be aware of the potential of individuals presenting with conjunctivitis who have had exposure to affected animals,” the health alert says. “Reports of severe avian influenza A(H5N1) illness in humans have included fulminant pneumonia leading to respiratory failure, acute respiratory distress syndrome, septic shock, and death.” 

Officials have emphasized that risk to general public remains low, and that practicing good hygiene can help prevent the spread of this and many other illnesses. 

“People can protect themselves against flu by washing their hands often, covering their coughs and sneezes, not picking up dead birds and animals, and staying home if sick,” the health alert says.

Because dairy cattle have been impacted, officials have also warned against consuming raw unpasteurized milk, which can make humans ill even if it is not infected with bird flu. Milk purchased in stores is required to be pasteurized and is safe to drink, officials said.