Posted this to show the circling behaviour to some friends. It's a (thankfully dying) myth that vultures circle above dying animals waiting for them to die. The reason they circle is because there's places where thermals are formed and they want to stay above them. Thermals are basically columns of hot air that form above a surface that produces a lot of heat, for example, a big rock under the sun on a mountain. Because of gravity and density, hot air goes up (this is why for example a flame on a candle always goes up, the heat is making it go upwards!). What does this mean to the Vulture? That if he goes to that column of hot air, it's going to get some lift because well the air is pulling it up. This is why vultures have such big and broad wings, they work similar to a sail on a boat and catches as much rising air as it can, which makes it climb up in the air without having to waste energy flapping those giant wings. And why they circle? Just to stay inside that thermal. If they saw a meal then they would dive down to get it instead of being a beacon for all predators that says "A dying prey is riiiight below me, come and steal it from me!"

And of course, it doesn't work just for thermals but also for any type of upward current of air, like we see in cliffs

This was recorded in the Triple Frontier, which is, you guessed it, a triple frontier. It's between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. This was recorded from the argentine side