Cathartes
, Cathartes Turkey Vulture We frequently see turkey vultures cleaning up our beach. While we usually see them as ugly, they have an imposing presence and serve an ecological service. Here is a painting I did of one, Cathartes.. . Wikipedia tells us " Cathartes is the Greek word καθαρτής, for "purifier," referring to these vultures' role as "cleansers" that "tidy up" decomposing corpses in nature." I labeled my vulture with a heraldic vulture and his botanical name above my monogram. You may have seen my oversized vulture for Halloween on the entrance to Rockford Tower...