Researchers Leave Trail Camera in Abandoned House, Capture Rare Interactions Between Birds of Prey

Image credit: DGG, MC, JHS, via Diego Gallego-García et al. Journal of Raptor Research 2026

Researchers left a trail camera in an abandoned house and captured an extraordinary record of never-before-seen interactions between different species of birds of prey.

In a study published last month in the Journal of Raptor Research, scientists revealed how they placed a trail camera in abandoned properties in Argentina and filmed a rare look at three different birds of prey nesting just feet apart.

The footage showed Black Vultures and American Barn Owls — and later Black Vultures and Chaco eagles — raising their young inside a ruined building, with both species successfully raising offspring despite sharing the same small space.

The discovery is notable because birds of prey can compete fiercely for nesting sites and resources. As the BBC’s Discover Wildlife Magazine reports, the trail camera footage may be the first known examples of black vultures nesting beside predatory species of raptor.

Researchers documented black vultures nesting alongside Chaco eagles on an abandoned hunting tower in La Pampa province, central Argentina (A–C), and with American barn owls inside an abandoned house in Santa Fe province, northern Argentina (D–F). | Image credit: DGG, MC, JHS, via Diego Gallego-García et al., Journal of Raptor Research, 2026.

“This is the first documentation of Black Vultures nesting within a meter or two of predatory raptor species,” the researchers write in the study.

The video obtained by the researchers show a pair of black vultures nesting adjacent to a pair of American barn owls in a room of an abandoned house in northern Argentina. In a separate earlier case, a pair of black vultures were found to be incubating two eggs inside the cabin, while a pair of Chaco eagles were incubating a single egg in an abandoned hunting tower.

According to the BBC’s Discover Wildlife Magazine, black vultures are medium-sized birds found across much of the Americas. They are mainly scavengers, feeding on carrion and human waste, although they will also eat eggs, small reptiles and young animals. Unlike many birds, they don’t build traditional nests, instead laying their eggs in places such as tree cavities, on the ground or inside structures that provide shelter.

The species has increasingly been known to take advantage of human-made structures as nesting sites, including the abandoned buildings documented in this study. Chaco Eagles, meanwhile, are larger predatory birds that primarily hunt mammals, making their close proximity to Black Vultures particularly interesting. Despite the potential for competition or conflict around nests, the trail-camera footage showed no direct interaction between the two species in the abandoned building.

However, at one point, the researchers note that the trail camera captured the Black Vulture visiting the eagle’s nest while the adult eagle was away, after which the eagle’s egg disappeared. But researchers could not confirm whether the vulture was responsible.

Previously, PetaPixel reported on a filmmaker left a trail camera inside an old grizzly bear den near Yellowstone National Park for over ten years, capturing a remarkable decade-long record of wildlife from inside the cave.