Maybe at the beginning of crown of swords, but the part that got me on the topic was lord of chaos when mat comes across the tinker's that were slaughtered. Was it a vulture that rand was referencing?

I really like that breakdown. Being a point where there wont be a confirmation (unless Sanderson is just hiding some random obscure notes on vultures to hype the show or something XD) I think that explanation probably makes the most sense. It's a true show of outstanding writing when even such an obscure detail like this can be looked at with the rules of the world you made and figured out with some thought and logic. Just one of the many reasons I love this series 

57 minutes ago, Harldin said:

If i was the Dark One and wanted to use animals as spies i think i would be more likely to come up with something with a bit more intelligence and a lot less conspicuous. Crows and Rats make far better spies, much smaller far more intelligent and very common everywhere in the world, Vultures live solely off of Carrion, Crows and Rats are Omnivores and there presence on Roofs, in Houses, Gardens etc of large Cities will barely be noticed(except for the Borderlands) Vultures would draw attention sitting on a Roof in a large City, which is the exact opposite of what Spies should do.

That makes sense, and I almost raised the point that they might blend in well in the Waste but than I remembered that there wouldn't be much point since even the Trollic Wars couldn't break the Aiel. Guess there just isn't any real advantage to using them over ravens or rats, bigger, more noticable. Though I guess having them be so useless might make them unexpected. But itd only work once. Thanks for the answers though! I just hadn't noticed it before and thought it odd, but it makes sense when you put it that way.

1 hour ago, Aisling~ said:

Yes but (and I could be wrong) aren't vultures a notoriously stupid bird? Maybe they're not smart enough to retain the info they should report. ?

 

I just imagine a Myrddraal telling a vulture to watch the road and report if it sees anything, and an hour later the bird comes back to say it saw a rabbit. I can see why maybe they dont like them if that's the case lol. 

         I've been rereading the series of late and was surprised when I noticed an odd detail. From the beginning it was made clear that ravens, rats and all other creatures that feed on death can be used as spies for the dark one. But many times throughout the series characters see or interact with vultures and do nothing, but will set bounties on and kill ravens or rats on sight.

           Does anyone know if Jordan ever addressed this? Or is it just a funny little oversight? Because in my opinion vultures are known for feeding on the dead even more than ravens or rats, the other two will eat anything they can scavenge, but as far as I know vultures hunt for dead meat.