When a family in Oklahoma decided to tear down an old, weathered barn on their property, they expected to find dust, hay, and maybe a few forgotten tools. What they didn’t expect to find was a single, abandoned egg lying on the floor.
Unsure what kind of bird it belonged to, they brought the egg to their neighbor, Whitney Robbins, who kept turkeys on her nearby property. Robbins figured one of her turkeys might have wandered off and laid it there — and, curious to see if it was still viable, she decided to incubate it.
For weeks, the mysterious egg sat in the warmth of her incubator. Robbins checked it daily, unsure if it would ever hatch. But then, one morning, she noticed the faintest crack.
“It took two days for it to fully emerge from the shell,” Robbins told The Dodo.
As the little creature pushed its way out, Robbins waited eagerly — but the moment its tiny head appeared, she froze.
“The second its head was out and I could see a curve in the beak, I just kind of went, ‘Oh no, I think I had a booboo, because that is definitely not a turkey,’” she said.
Instead of the pink-beaked, yellow-feathered chick she expected, the baby was covered in white fuzz with a dark face and a sharply hooked beak.
“I had no clue what it was until it dried,” Robbins recalled. “And when I could see its bald face, I was like, ‘Oh gosh, I think that’s a vulture.’”
A little research confirmed her hunch — Robbins hadn’t hatched a turkey at all, but a turkey vulture.
“We were half right,” she laughed.
Realizing she was caring for a wild animal, Robbins quickly contacted a licensed wildlife rescue to ensure the baby vulture got the expert care it needed.
She only had the chick for a few hours, but the brief experience left a lasting impression.
Her unexpected encounter inspired her to learn more about vultures — and she was amazed by what she discovered.
“There are so many people that think vultures are terrible animals, that they’re mean or they’re aggressive,” Robbins said. “They’re so important for the ecosystem. They’re so important for stopping disease.”
Now, whenever she sees vultures soaring above her property, she can’t help but smile.
“Knowing we could, in a very small way, do our part in ensuring this baby’s survival is something we hold so dear to our hearts,” she said.
From an old barn to a warm incubator to the open skies, that mystery egg carried a life full of purpose — and a powerful reminder that even the most misunderstood creatures deserve compassion.
