Bearded Vulture

The bearded vulture, or lammergeier, is a very large bird of prey and the only species in its genus. It is 94–125 cm long with a wingspan of 2.31–2.83 m and weighs 4.5–7.8 kg. Grey-blue to grey-black above, it is not much more closely related to the Old World vultures proper than to hawks, and differs in having a feathered neck. Like the Egyptian vulture it has an unusual lozenge-shaped tail, longer than the wing is wide. Juveniles are dark black-brown and take five to seven years to reach full maturity, with first breeding at eight years or older (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives and breeds on crags in high mountains, including the Indian subcontinent, and Himalayan birds tend to be slightly larger than those in other ranges; it has been seen living at 7,500 m and flying at 7,300 m in the Himalaya. It is the only known vertebrate whose diet is 70–90% bone, and it is a scavenger, feeding mostly on the remains of dead animals. Females lay one or two eggs in mid-winter, which hatch at the start of spring. SoIB 2023 rates it a High conservation priority, a resident and altitudinal migrant with a rapid long-term decline of about 76% and a current decline of over 6% a year (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).