A particular characteristic of many vultures is a bald head, devoid of feathers; if vultures had head feathers, they would become spattered with blood and other fluids when the vultures ate flesh from carcasses, and thus would be difficult to keep clean.
A particular characteristic of many vultures is a bald head. This is devoid of feathers. They would become spattered with blood and other fluids. The vultures ate flesh from carcasses. The vultures thus would be difficult to keep clean. Vultures had head feathers.