The body plumage is black, and the head and neck, which are featherless, are pale orange with red or blue areas.

The lesser yellow-headed vulture feeds on carrion and locates carcasses by sight and by smell, an ability which is rare in birds.

[5] The lesser yellow-headed vulture's genus, Cathartes, means "purifier" and is from the Latinized form of the Greek kathartēs/καθαρτης.

[6] The common name, vulture, is derived from the Latin word vulturus, which means "tearer" and is a reference to its feeding habits.

[11] The South American Classification Committee has removed the New World vultures from Ciconiiformes and instead placed them in Incertae sedis, but notes that a move to Falconiformes or Cathartiformes is possible.

The head and neck are bare of feathers, and the skin is yellow, with a reddish forehead and nape and a gray-blue crown.

[5] It is found in Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, swamps, mangroves, and heavily degraded former forest.

[23] Lesser yellow-headed vultures do not build nests, but rather lay eggs on the ground, cliff ledges, the floors of caves, or in the hollow of a tree.

[22] It is not usually attracted to larger carcasses and may swallow live invertebrates and larvae, possibly also frogs, as much as smaller items of carrion.

[24] It prefers fresh meat, but often cannot make the first cut into the carcass of a larger animal because its beak is not strong enough to tear into the tough hide.

The lesser yellow-headed vulture will no longer feed on a piece of carrion once the meat is in a state of extreme decay, as it becomes contaminated with microbial toxins.

[26] The lesser yellow-headed vulture forages using its keen eyesight to locate carrion on the ground, but also uses its sense of smell, an ability which is uncommon in the avian world.

It locates carrion by detecting the scent of ethyl mercaptan, a gas produced by the beginnings of decay in dead animals.

This allows the smaller lesser yellow-headed vulture access to food, as it does not have a bill strong enough to tear the hide of larger animals.

[26] The lesser yellow-headed vulture is a bird of Least Concern according to the IUCN, with an estimated global range of 7,800,000 km2 (3,000,000 sq mi) and a population of between 100,000 and 1,000,000 individuals.