Greater Yellow-headed Vulture

SCI Name:  Cathartes melambrotus
Protonym:  Cathartes melambrotus Smiths.Misc.Coll. 146 no.6 p.15
Taxonomy:  Cathartiformes / Cathartidae / Cathartes
Taxonomy Code:  gyhvul1
Type Locality:  Kartabo, Guyana.
Author:  Wetmore
Publish Year:  1964
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

CATHARTES
(Cathartidae; Ϯ Turkey Vulture C. aura) Gr. καθαρτης kathartēs  cleanser  < καθαριζω katharizō  to cleanse; the Turkey Vulture acts as a very useful scavenger in the Neotropics; "GENUS 67. CATHARTES (καθαρτης purgator) Sarcoramphus Dumer.  (Aasvogel Germ.) Rostrum mediocre crassiusculum, rectum, maxilla basi ceromate, saepius carunculato, tecta, dertro distincto fornicato compressiusculo, adunco. Nares in ceromatis antica parte prope culmen sitae, ovales, longitudinales, perviae, mesorhinio angusto tenui. Lingua canaliculata, margine serrata. Caput et collum superius nuda, aut carunculata, aut rugosa. Collum saepius torque plumarum cinctum. Pedes insidentes, validi, mediocres, nudi; tarsus digito medio fere brevior. Ungues validi, modici, incurvi, acuti. Tarsotheca squamulato-reticulata, acrodactyla scutulata. Pelma torosum, scabrum.  Species: Vultur Papa, Aura Lin." (Illiger 1811); "Cathartes Illiger, 1811, Prodromus Syst. Mammalium Avium, p. 236. Type, by subsequent designation (Vigors, 1825, Zool. Journ., 2, p. 384), Vultur aura Linnaeus." (Amadon in Peters, 1979, 1, ed. 2, p. 275).    
Var. Cathrartes, Catharthes, Cahartes.   
Synon. Catharista, Gallinaza, Oenops, Rhinogryphus.

melambrotus
Gr. μελαμ- melam-  black  < μελας melas, μελανος melanos  black; βροτος brotos  of the dead (cf. μελαμβροτος melambrotos  land of negroes) (Cathartes).