Bearded vulture

Gypaetus barbatus · The bearded vulture is a very large bird of prey that lives and breeds on crags in high mountains in Iran, southern Europe, East Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Tibet, and the Caucasus.

Also called Lammergeier, Ossifrage, Lammergeyer.

Bearded vulture
Photo: Chme82, CC BY-SA 4.0
Bearded vulture
Photo: © Giles Laurent, gileslaurent.com, License CC BY-SA, CC BY-SA 4.0
Bearded vulture
Photo: Wilfredor, CC0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassAves
OrderAccipitriformes
FamilyAccipitridae
GenusGypaetus
SpeciesGypaetus barbatus

Where it lives

High mountains of southern Europe, Africa, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Tibet.

Fun facts

  • The bearded vulture is the only known vertebrate whose diet is 70–90% bone.
  • To crack bones too big to swallow, it carries them 50–150 metres up and drops them onto rocks, smashing them open to reach the marrow.
  • Its stomach acid is about pH 1, and large bones are digested in roughly 24 hours.
  • Its rusty-orange feathers come from dust-bathing or rubbing iron-rich mud on its body, and it even passes the brown colour on to its eggs.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).