Line #25 Main/CirclingVultures


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11	[[quoteright:350:[[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2014_circling_vultures4.png]]]]
12
13	->''"If you are alone in the desert and see vultures perched above you, your first thought is never, 'Oh thank God, the vultures are coming to help.'"''
14	-->-- '''Creator/JohnOliver''', ''Series/LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver''
15
16	In fiction, when a character, especially one wandering through a ThirstyDesert, seems on the brink of death, vultures may be seen circling overhead or perching menacingly nearby, waiting for their prey to collapse and die. It's like a visual shorthand for the natural world itself saying IfYouDieICallYourStuff.
17
18	Despite the trope name, the birds don't necessarily have to be vultures -- [[CreepyCrows crows and ravens]] are often used to provide much the same effect. However, as vultures do intentionally prefer scavenging, it just [[TruthinTelevision fits the scenario]] more.
19
20	In RealLife, vultures (and other large birds) do circle, but it's related to how they fly instead of being strictly part of their hunting methods. Gaining height in flight requires a lot of energy, and large birds rely on riding thermals, columns of rising hot air, to save their strength.
21
22	Not to be confused with CirclingBirdies even though vultures are birds. See also KidnappingBirdOfPrey, for when the bird goes after the character while they're still alive. More often than not, these will be some of the only living things to keep you company in the SeaOfSand.
23
24	Compare and contrast VileVulture where individual vultures are depicted as villains.
25
26	!!'''As a {{Death Trope\|s}}, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware of the vultures.'''
27	----
28	!!Examples:
29
30	[[foldercontrol]]
31
32	[[folder:Advertising]]
33	* There was a commercial that had the Advertising/EnergizerBunny going through a desert while vultures start circling overhead. Eventually they collapse to the ground in exhaustion while the bunny, of course, keeps going, and going, and...
34	* One phone commercial has a guy waiting for his phone to connect, while someone using the product being advertised sits next to him and goes through what needs to be done in a few seconds. When he walks away, a pair of vultures settle next to the guy with the slow connection.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
38	* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': Invoked in ''End of Evangelion'' when the winged MP Evas are air dropped into the geofront.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Comic Books]]
42	* In ''ComicBook/DCChallenge'', ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} is stranded in the desert, dying of dehydration. (This is the "can only be away from water 60 minutes" version of Aquaman.) Vultures are circling. [[{{Cliffhanger}} What can he do?]] Wait until one lands and then open it up and drink its blood - since blood is like 98% water, it counts.
43	* In the Creator/ECComics story "Carrion Death!" (''[=Shock SuspenStories=]'' #9), a fugitive trudges through the desert for four days, handcuffed to the corpse of a state trooper he killed. The fugitive sees the vultures as his only chance to rid himself of the dead weight attached to his right arm, but after they have stripped the corpse clean, he finds out that they do eat live flesh, too.
44	* ''ComicBook/WonderWomanOdyssey'': Some vultures follow Diana through a lonely desert and end up feasting on her enemies after a group of mercenaries tries, and fails, to slaughter a stranded group of mostly unarmed Amazon refugees, apparently without much understanding of what "Amazon" means even if the group is mostly the old and infirm.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
48	* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'':
49	** In "the perils of improper circling", two of the vultures bonk heads in mid-air.
50	** One famous strip has some vultures gathered around an unseen corpse. One of them is wearing the guy's hat and coat and says mockingly "Hey! Look at me, everybody, I'm a cowboy! Howdy, howdy, howdy!"
51	** Another strip cartoon has a parched desert traveler crawling his way towards a pool of water. This prospect disappoints one vulture hovering above him, but a second vulture prepares to [[PianoDrop drop a piano on him]] before he reaches it.
52	** Yet another strip shows Pinocchio stranded in the desert, with the vultures replaced by ''woodpeckers'' intent on pecking on his wooden body.
53	** Another strip features two elderly men feeding birds at a park bench, commenting on the smaller birds eating their seed [[BlackComedy but wondering why two much larger birds nearby just stare at them]].
54	** And another one has the vultures gathered around a pepperoni pizza.
55	* One newspaper cartoon by Andrzej Mleczko depicted a vulture sitting on a branch, looking down at a dying rhino: "I hope I am not bothering you, sir, I am just waiting for you to croak."
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Fan Works]]
59	* In the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' fanfic ''The Flux of Mortal Things'', Vorik is experiencing a ''pon farr'' hallucination where he's crossing a desert on Vulcan with a solitary ''[[https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Shavokh shavokh]]'' circling far above, waiting for him to collapse from hunger or fatigue.
60	* ''Fanfic/TheLionKingAdventures'' features an example of this in ''Growing Pains''. In this story, Simba keeps rapidly ageing, eventually falling unconscious in the middle of the flatlands due to becoming too old. The vultures close in on him, circling overhead. He just manages to claw his way to safety under the shade of a tree.
61	* [[InvokedTrope Invoked and weaponized]] in ''Fanfic/ThisBites''. [[BountyHunter The Hiruno Familiga]], who specialize in psychologically ''breaking'' their bounties for ease of delivery, has trained vultures working for them who circle over the ships of their targets while carrying mirrors to reflect sunlight on the ship and cook the crew for added torture.
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
65	* ''WesternAnimation/The3LittlePigsTheMovie'': Two vultures perch on a tree near ''The Inn of the Gentle Wolf'' and hope the dinner guests let them have some bones to gnaw on after the DinnerTheatre where Wally and Beemo will be the [[CarnivoreConfusion stars]] of the show.
66	* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHeadDoAmerica'': Beavis and Butt-Head wander off into the desert in an idiotic attempt to try and reach Washington D.C on foot (from ''New Mexico!'') and end up slowly dying from dehydration (after briefly stumbling across two drifters who are heavily implied to be their long-lost fathers). Sure enough, the vultures show up. One even attempts to gnaw on Beavis while he's still alive. While very near death, they still take a moment to giggle at two of the vultures having sex. [[spoiler: They're eventually found by Muddy, the movie's BigBad who "rescues" them just so he can shoot them.]]
67	* ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeTheMeltdown'' had [[TalkingAnimal talking vultures]] circle the various creatures trying to escape the flood waiting for some to fail, leaving them with dinner.
68	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'', vultures swoop down on an exhausted Simba, but are dispersed by Timon and Pumbaa "bowling for buzzards".
69	* ''WesternAnimation/MarchOfTheDinosaurs'': Well, it's more like circling ''Azhdarchids''...
70	* In the "Pecos Bill" segment of ''WesternAnimation/MelodyTime'', Bill meets his horse Widowmaker when rescuing him from circling vultures.
71	* ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'': Two vultures follow the Queen in her Wicked Witch disguise as she goes to the cottage to get Snow White, and their presence alerts the WoodlandCreatures that there is something seriously wrong about the "peddler woman" with her basket of apples, clearly being aware that the Queen was trying to poison Snow White and eager when she offered her an apple. In the end, the vultures demonstrate that they were not after someone specific in particular, and thus, as the Evil Queen [[DisneyVillainDeath falls to her doom]], the vultures slowly circle down after ''her'' instead.
72	[[/folder]]
73
74	[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]
75	* ''Film/{{Airplane}}'': They're not circling, but a bunch of vultures perch over the heroes as they prepare to crash-land.
76	* ''Film/TheAndromedaStrain'' (1971): When the SCOOP team approaches the town of Piedmont they see buzzards circling over the town, a {{Foreshadowing}} of the dead bodies they will find there. When they see birds feasting on the corpses, they drop DeadlyGas grenades to stop them flying off and spreading the pathogen.
77	* ''Film/BedknobsAndBroomsticks'': During the animals' soccer game, vultures serve as medics, waiting on the sidelines for the referee (Mr. Brown) to be trampled by the players. A RunningGag is made of them rushing into the field to "treat" Mr. Brown, only to be waved away after he turns out to be alive.
78	* ''Film/TheBridgeOnTheRiverKwai'': During his escape through the jungle, Shears notices a couple of vultures waiting for him to die.
79	* ''Film/CapricornOne'': Subverted. One of the astronauts being hunted by government agents in the desert, delirious from heat and thirst, thinks he sees "birds" circling above him--and in the camera shot depicting his blurred vision, it does look like vultures circling. Turns out to be those {{Black Helicopter}}s though.
80	* ''Film/CarryOnInTheLegion'': Seen as the troops march across the desert from the dry oasis to emphasise the severity of their situation.
81	* ''Film/TheCaveOfTheYellowDog'': Some vultures, who don't have any carrion handy, start circling a lost toddler who is very much alive.
82	* In ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982'', one vulture actually tries to peck the crucified Conan. Conan bites its neck and chokes it.
83	* In ''Film/DayOfTheEvilGun'', buzzards start circling above Warfield and Forbes after the Apache stake them out in the desert to die. They soon start landing for a closer look.
84	* In ''Film/DesertNights'' jewel thieves Steve and Diana rob a diamond mine's safe, kidnap Hugh the mine foreman, and escape into the desert. The escape goes bad in a ThirstyDesert. Hugh makes sure that they notice the vultures circling overhead, waiting to eat them.
85	* ''Film/TheEgyptian'' (1954) opens with the protagonist as an elderly man in exile on the shores of the Red Sea writing HowWeGotHere.
86	-->'''Sinuhe:''' There is no more desolate spot on Earth. Soon the jackals and vultures will make a poor meal of what is left of me.
87	* ''Film/{{Fall}}''. The plot involves two women who are stranded in the desert on top of a 2,000-foot-high derelict transmission tower. Their situation is not made easier by a vulture that attacks the exposed wound of one of them, [[spoiler:though she eventually [[PlayingPossum uses this to lure it close]] and kill it for enough sustenance to survive a little longer.]]
88	* In ''Film/{{Five}}'', it is established that some birds survived the apocalypse. On seeing a circling vulture, Michael curses it as a horrible scavenger and tells Rosemarie how he saw flocks of them in the cities full of dead bodies after the bomb went off.
89	* ''Film/GunFury'': After Jess objects to Slayton abducting Jennifer and prevents him from raping her, Slayton leaves him tied to a post for the circling vultures: telling him he'll maybe last 24 hours.
90	* In ''Film/IllBeHomeForChristmas'', Jake is stranded in the desert [[ItMakesSenseInContext in a Santa costume glued to his body]]. When he moans that he wishes he was dead, a buzzard nearby takes interest. Jake clarifies that he only wishes he was dead, not that he is dead.
91	* ''Film/JuliusCaesar1970'' opens on the desolate battlefield of Munda, with vultures circling over it.
92	* ''Film/TheScavengers'': At the start, Sgt. Ward is worried that circling buzzards might give away their position if the horse dies. At the end, buzzards land and come for Harris as he is pinned under his dead horse.
93	* ''Film/SilentTongue'' opens with Talbot shooing buzzards away from Awbonnie's body.
94	* ''Film/TerrorToons'': Cartoon vultures appear out of nowhere directly after a character is killed.
95	* In ''Film/{{Tumbleweed}}'', Jim watches the circling buzzards and compares them to Yaqui who are patiently waiting to starve him and the posse out. He even remarks that if you didn't know what they signified, they might even be considered pretty.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Gamebooks]]
99	* ''Literature/TempleOfTerror'' have you crossing the [[ThirstyDesert Desert of Skulls]] in order to find the Lost City of Vatos. At one point you can find an oasis with birds circling over it, and given the choice to drink from the water. If you chose that option, it turns out the water is poisoned, those birds are vultures, and you're now dead.
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Literature]]
103	* ''Literature/TheCalfOfTheNovemberCloud'': As exploring a hill, Konyek notices a flock of vultures flying in circles not far from his position, and guesses there had been a kill. Konyek rushes towards the place and comes upon an eland antelope's corpse. The boy quickly cuts strips of the eland's hide and walks away as a pack of hyenas claim the carrion and a flock of vultures "wheeled, and circled, and waited".
104	* In Creator/LloydAlexander's ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain'', vulture-like birds called Gwythaints serve the villainous Arawn, whose title is "Lord of Death." Needless to say, when they show up it usually means something bad is about to go down.
105	* Circling scavenger birds appear in more than one chapter of ''Literature/TheColdMoons''. A few buzzards and a red kite inadvertently lead Eldon's group to a dying deer, which they kill and bring back to their sick peers.
106	%% * ''Literature/DalzielAndPascoe'': Parodied in ''Pictures of Perfection''.
107	* In the ''Literature/{{Dragaera}}'' novels, jhereg take the place of vultures for purposes of this trope. Loiosh and Rocza, seen circling Vlad's unconscious body in ''Literature/{{Tiassa}}'', are mistaken for this by some guardsmen.
108	* ''Literature/{{Dune}}''. After Liet-Kynes is left in the desert to die, he sees hawks (the Dune equivalent of vultures) circling overhead.
109	* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/TheGentleVultures": The Hurrians are waiting... they've been waiting for fifteen years... waiting for WorldWarIII to devastate the Earth just like it does [[InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves for every other species]]. An [[AlienAbduction abducted human]] yells at them for [[ScavengersAreScum waiting around until after the wars]] so they can [[PlanetLooters pick through the dead planets]] instead of [[PreventTheWar intervening beforehand]].
110	* ''Literature/HighDeryni'': These are the first clue to the fate of Duke Jared's army.
111	* ''Literature/TheJungleBook'': Referenced in "Tiger! Tiger!":
112	-->The sun makes the rocks dance in the heat, and the herd children hear one kite (never any more) whistling almost out of sight overhead, and they know that if they died, or a cow died, that kite would sweep down, and the next kite miles away would see him drop and follow, and the next, and the next, and almost before they were dead there would be a score of hungry kites come out of nowhere.
113	* In the {{Literature/Quiller}} novel ''The Tango Briefing'', the British spy is sent to investigate a crashed airplane in the desert, which has the requisite vultures to his distaste. The plane turns out to be carrying a cargo of fear gas, so Quiller hallucinates that he's being attacked by giant vultures. The vultures serve as a ChekhovsGun [[spoiler:when Quiller has to detonate a small atomic bomb to destroy the gas, but the [[UnplannedManualDetonation timing mechanism is broken]]. He plays dead, waits till the vultures come to have a taste, grabs one of them and throws it inside the cockpit where he's jammed the bomb's detonator button under the thrust levers. When the vulture gets tired of flapping around in outrage it goes to perch on the levers and... ]]
114	* ''Literature/SardHarker'': During his trek through the wilderness, Harker has an encounter with a trio of vultures, which first perch menacingly then circle overhead.
115	* ''Literature/TheSwordOfSaintFerdinand'': After a skirmish next to the Genil River, a flock of vultures quickly appears and starts circling over the ruins littered with bodies of dead soldiers. Somberly, the narration remarks that only carrion-eaters profit from the war.
116	* In ''[[Literature/{{Tarzan}} Tarzan the Untamed]]'', Tarzan has to [[CrossingTheDesert cross a large, completely barren desert region]] to reach an area of good hunting beyond. By the third day his food and water are gone, and [[ThirstyDesert the desert has no springs or other water sources]], nor any edible life of any kind that he can find. There's only a single vulture circling overhead. Subverted when he lures it into arm's reach, and kills and eats it.
117	* ''Literature/AWitchShallBeBorn''. Conan the Barbarian is crucified out in the desert, and [[VillainBall no guard is placed on him]] because they'll scare off the vultures, and the sellsword who placed Conan there wants them to [[EatenAlive feast on Conan before he dies]]. As in [[Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982 the movie]], he kills a vulture who tries feasting on him too early. Some passing desert nomads admire his toughness and rescue him, figuring he'll be a useful addition to their ranks. The story ends with Conan (now chief of the nomad tribe) leaving the sellsword to the same fate, knowing the city-raised sellsword won't last nearly as long as he would and [[HatedByAll no-one's coming to save him]].
118	* In ''Literature/TheYearling'', this is how Jody finds the orphaned fawn. The vultures are circling over the carcass of its mother.
119	[[/folder]]
120
121	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
122	* ''Series/TheAndromedaStrain'':
123	** The military in search of the Scoop satellite sees buzzards circling over Piedmont, {{foreshadow}}ing the massacre ThePlague has caused.
124	** When Nash is alone in the desert and is being pursued by government assassins, a couple of vultures start circling over him, causing him to get pissed and starting throwing rocks at them.
125	* ''Series/{{Bones}}'':
126	** In one episode, when the heroes are looking for some remains, they see vultures circling and know that that's where the remains were.
127	** In one episode, the characters are lost in the desert and see vultures circling over them.
128	* ''Series/CSIVerse'': All three branches of the franchise have used the spot-the-vultures technique of finding human remains.
129	** ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In "[[Recap/CSINYS05E16 No Good Deed]]", vultures circling a body on a rooftop lead investigators to it after a long search.
130	%% * ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' has also used this.
131	* ''Series/DinosaurRevolution'': In the ''Protoceratops'' story. Well, it's more like circling ''Azhdarchids''...
132	* In the ''Series/Forever2014'' episode "Best Foot Forward," after a dancer is kidnapped and they track down the hotel room where her foot was amputated, Henry spotting seagulls circling a spot on the shore is how they find where she was dumped, in this case ''before'' she becomes a corpse.
133	* ''Series/TheMuppetShow'': Before performing the famous "Telephone Pole Bit", Fozzie tells Scooter that "we are gonna die" (meaning the skit is going to bomb), and as Scooter asks what makes him think that, the camera focuses on two vultures looking down on them.
134	* ''Series/PrehistoricPlanet'': Circling Azhdarchids in the second episode, but the principle is the same. They're afraid to land to feed on a sauropod carcass because a pack of Tarbosaurus are still sleeping nearby, and have to wait until they leave before descending.
135	* ''Series/SASRogueHeroes''. Shown at the end of episode 2 when the newly formed Special Air Service arrives at [[PlaceWorseThanDeath Kabrit]] for their first mission. [[{{Foreshadowing}} Which doesn't go well.]]
136	* ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'': An episode ends with an escaped convict [[AndIMustScream paralyzed in the middle of the desert, about to be eaten alive by vultures]].
137	[[/folder]]
138
139	[[folder:Music]]
140	* Music/JamesBlunt's "You're Beautiful" features a variant, with Blunt's character briefly looking up to see a flock of seagulls (which, like vultures, are scavengers) circling over him as he's about to throw himself off of a cliff.
141	* Defied in Music/DaysNDaze's song "Ward Off The Vultures."
142	-->''The reaper shall tremble before me / WARD OFF THE VULTURES! / I won't soon be resting in earth / WARD OFF THE VULTURES!''
143	* Referenced by Music/EgoLikeness in their song, "Aviary":
144	-->''In come the vultures through dusty air / to take you down and tear the ribbons from your hair.''
145	* In the video for "White America" by Music/{{Eminem}}, vultures are circling around the corpse of a man who had evidently been hung by a lynch mob for saying the "wrong" things.
146	* In "25 Minutes to Go," written by Creator/ShelSilverstein and most famously sung by Music/JohnnyCash, the narrator is counting the minutes before his execution by hanging. These are the last thing he sees before he dies:
147	--> I can see the buzzards, I can hear the crows, one more minute to go\
148	And now I'm swingin' and here I go-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!
149	* PlayedForLaughs in Jake Thackray's "The Bantam Cock" (also covered by Creator/JasperCarrott). The amorous cockerel has his way with every female bird in the neighbourhood, and afterwards pretends to be dead in order to lure vultures down to his reach.
150	* "I'll Shoot The Moon" by Music/TomWaits from ''Music/TheBlackRider'':
151	-->''A vulture circles over your head for you baby''
152	* Music/WesleyWillis wrote a song called "The Vultures Ate My Dead Ass Up".
153	-->''Once upon a time, a team of hungry birds came down on a dead body.''
154	[[/folder]]
155
156	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
157	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' module B8 ''Journey to the Rock''. When the {{PC}}s reach the Cave of Sanctuary they will see sinister vultures circling lazily overhead: they're about to snack on the body of a recently killed gnome.
158	[[/folder]]
159
160	[[folder:Theatre]]
161	* In ''Theatre/PorgyAndBess'', a buzzard flying over Catfish Row is seen as a bad omen.
162	-->"Boss, dat bird mean trouble. Once de buzzard fold his wing an' light over yo' house, all yo' happiness done dead."
163	[[/folder]]
164
165	[[folder:Video Games]]
166	* ''VideoGame/DieAnstalt'': Used for one of Dolly's dream sequences, but the vultures are part-wolf.
167	* In ''VideoGame/DiscworldII'' one puzzle involves vultures hovering over a piece of carrion. [[spoiler:Hide a rotting severed arm among the trader's goods and watch vultures to see where he keeps going.]]
168	* ''Videogame/{{Evolve}}'' has this as a gameplay mechanic. Every time the monster eats there is a chance of spawning these. While the first two meals have a 0% chance, those odds increase until the eighth has a 100% chance. The odds reset to a lower number every time birds spawn. Unlucky players may trigger these with every meal while others may never see them.
169	* In ''VideoGame/HyperLightDrifter'' there is an entire cult of [[CartoonCreature birds]] resembling vultures or [[CreepyCrows corvids]].
170	* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestVAbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder'', two vultures descend if Graham dies of thirst in the desert.
171	* Cubone's Pokédex entries in [[Videogame/PokemonSunAndMoon Pokémon Sun]] and [[VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon Pokémon Ultra Sun]] mention that when it cries for its mother, the cries attract Mandibuzz, its natural predator.
172	* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
173	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'': In the Desert of Mystery, vultures leave their cactus perch and circle around Link. During the ending credits, vultures in the desert circle around the Master Locksmith, the Average Middle-Aged Man.
174	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'': A swarm of seagulls marks the spot in the waters of Great Bay where the nearly-dead Mikau is floating, and achieves the same effect.
175	* In ''VideoGame/LordsOfXulima'', circling vultures are a common background element in the [[ThirstyDesert Varaskel desert region]]. Typically they're circling around some sun-bleached bones, too...
176	* ''VideoGame/RedAlert3'': Invoked in-universe with the Harbinger gunship, called "vultures" by their detractors because of their method of attack (being essentially an AC-130 gunship that fires a scaled-down WaveMotionGun, its weapons are mounted on its sides, so it continuously circle-strafes around the target).
177	-->'''Harbinger Pilot:''' Keep a-circlin'!
178	* ''VideoGame/Uncharted3DrakesDeception'': Downplayed. When Nathan Drake comes ashore in Yemen, right after escaping a pirate ship, he finds a single vulture waiting for him. He promptly tells it to clear off.
179	[[/folder]]
180
181	[[folder:Webcomics]]
182	* ''Webcomic/FarOut'': A vulture comes to look at our wandering main character. Despite his being a robot and so slightly inedible.
183	* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20180907#.YClTjC2ZN-U A filler strip]] notifying that the writer "is sick and feeling a mite melodramatic" shows him cowering in bed, worriedly eyeing a very large vulture perched on his covers and glaring at him.
184	* ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'':
185	** [[https://www.kevinandkell.com/1997/kk0310.html In one strip]], Ms Aura (a school teacher and a turkey buzzard) is circling above Rudy's homework. Rudy and Bruno comment that this isn't a good sign.
186	** Subverted in the [[https://kevinandkell.com/2005/kk0612.html June 12, 2005 strip]]. A bunch of vultures are shown standing on the top of laptops at an internet café, which makes Kevin think the wi-fi the customers are using isn't secure... but then it turns out said vultures are just the waitstaff.
187	* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'': Parodied in strip [[https://xkcd.com/926/ #962]] when one character finds himself harried by a "time vulture", a ragged-looking bird with a lifespan of millennia and the ability to slow its own internal clock to a crawl. They hunt by latching onto a random creature, circling above it and waiting until it stops moving. Of course, the creature in question may be perfectly healthy and have decades of life left in it, but the time vultures can just wait.
188	-->'''Cueball 1:''' But what if the prey doesn't die?\
189	'''Cueball 2:''' I don't think you quite understand.\
190	'''Cueball 1:''' I mean, ''I'm'' not about to die...\
191	'''Cueball 2:''' From the vulture's point of view, everyone says that right before they do.
192	[[/folder]]
193
194	[[folder:Web Original]]
195	* The magnopterans in ''WebVideo/AlienBiospheres'' are a lineage of large opisthopterans that fill a similar niche to vultures, soaring over deserts with their long wings in search of carcasses.
196	* After Caboose accidentally kills Church with a tank in ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'', he tries to cheer him up. ''"Look, birds! ...why are they flying around in circles?"''
197	%%* ''Blog/TetrapodZoology''
198	[[/folder]]
199
200	[[folder:Western Animation]]
201	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', this is used (and mentioned), as Francine and Fern draw attention to the fact that there are vultures above them when they're lost in the mountains.
202	* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', the group gets lost in the desert and thinking of ways to find a way out, while Sokka is still tripping on cactus juice. ''"Why don't we ask the circle birds?"'' Said circle birds also happen to be [[MixAndMatchCritters part]] [[WickedWasp wasp]].
203	* The TerrorDactyl Scrapadactyls from ''WesternAnimation/{{Dinotrux}}'' will often circle above injured Dinotrux, making it easy to find someone in need of rescue.
204	* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'':
205	** In "Northwest Mansion Mystery" the introduction of the town's century-old Mayor, Eustace Befufftlefumpter, has him followed by a few vultures. He doesn't seem all that bothered by their presence. "That's okay, they're with me."
206	** In "The Love God", Robbie is lying in an open grave and mopes loudly about how much he misses Wendy. A vulture shows up, and Robbie tells it to just go ahead and eat him already. Once it does, however, he quickly backtracks.
207	---> '''Robbie''': AAAH! I was just being dramatic! Quit it! [[OwMyBodyPart Ow, my face!]] VULTURE!!
208	* Invoked in the "Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen Anthem" from ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'':
209	-->"And the buzzards they soar overhead,\
210	And poisonous snakes will devour us whole,\
211	Our bones will bleach in the sun!"
212	[[/folder]]
213
214	[[folder:Real Life]]
215	* Kevin Carter won a Pulitzer Prize for his photograph of a starving child in the Sudan, with a vulture waiting in the background. [[note]]According to other witnesses' accounts, this all happened a few tens of meters from the feeding center, where the child's parents were receiving corn. Also Carter chased the vulture away after making the photos.
216	* Leaks in natural gas lines invoke this trope: the oderizer that's added to it makes it smell like rotting meat to turkey vultures, so they'll circle the gas line looking for the corpse. Gas company technicians have learned to use this to locate leaks more quickly.[[/note]]
217	* A common paleoart meme back in the day was portraying the [[GiantFlyer giant pterosaur]] ''Quetzalcoatlus'' as a prehistoric stand-in for this trope, almost always by depicting it following herds of migrating dinosaurs with the assumption that it's waiting for one of them to keel over from exhaustion so it can swoop down and eat the remains. Later research revealed that this likely wasn't the case--''Quetzalcoatlus'' wasn't built to be an obligate scavenger, instead being more adept at hunting small vertebrates on the ground, like a modern stork or heron the size of a small plane. Scavenging wasn't ''entirely'' out of the question for ''Quetzalcoatlus'', of course, but that's not saying much as ''all'' carnivores (and even most herbivores) are known to scavenge every now and then.
218	* In general, one of the wilderness survival tips is that, if you notice/get "the Silence" and see vultures (or corvids, if there are no vultures) starting to gather, it's a sign that you may want to leave, as a predator or predators have just made their kill and you might be next. If you're in the ocean, that rule applies to seagulls.
219	[[/folder]]

Context Main / CirclingVultures