Gypaetus barbatus

Bearded Vulture, also known as Bearded Vulture, has three subspecies.

Bearded Vultures often move alone or in pairs, and rarely mix with other birds of prey. They often fly and soar slowly over the top of a mountain or hillside, with their heads hanging down and turning left and right from time to time, their eyes fixed on the ground, searching for animal carcasses. Because they love to eat carrion and bones, their feet have degenerated, but their high and flattened beaks have become extremely powerful, with the tip hooked at 90 degrees, like steel pliers. They rely on their powerful beaks to tear off carrion from animal carcasses and eat them, peel off large pieces of bones, smash them on rocks and fill their stomachs. This habit is very unique.

In the non-breeding season, bearded vultures occasionally mix with alpine vultures and griffon vultures, but they are much more alert than griffon vultures. After they find a carcass, they do not approach it immediately, but first soar and observe, then land 50 meters away to spy, and after confirming that there is no danger, they rush to grab food, and within tens of minutes, they can eat a huge animal carcass and leave only bones.

Bearded vultures have very strong vision. There are 1.5-2 million visual cells in the fovea of the retina, which is much more than the 200,000 in similar areas of humans. Therefore, at the same distance, bearded vultures can see objects much more clearly than humans. In the process of foraging, bearded vultures will pay special attention to the behavior of carrion-eating animals such as crows, kites, jackals, and hyenas. When these animals find animal carcasses, bearded vultures will also go to share a piece of the pie.

In nature, it is not easy to find animal carcasses. It takes a long time and a long distance to fly. Bearded vultures use a very energy-saving flying method - soaring. They spread their wings and soar freely over plateaus, deserts, Gobi, etc. Bearded vultures can keenly sense the rising air currents in the air. When the updraft starts to rise from the ground, it is cylindrical and gradually develops into a mushroom shape. At this time, the bearded vultures near it enter the updraft, and then continue to rise, soaring to higher and farther places without consuming much energy. Bearded vultures are good at flying. In order to find food, they can soar for 9-10 hours a day, and the flying altitude can reach more than 7,000 meters. When necessary, they can also use the movement of tail feathers and the slight rotation of primary flight feathers to fly quickly at an altitude of 3-5 meters above the ground.

Bearded vultures mainly feed on large animal carcasses, especially fresh carcasses and bones. Sometimes they also hunt small animals such as waterfowl, injured pheasants, quails and hares. They often fly slowly over exposed mountain tops or hillsides to search for food. Generally, it does not compete with other raptors for food, but waits aside until other raptors have finished eating, then picks up the leftover meat, internal organs and bones, and finally cleans up the battlefield.

The food of the bearded vulture is quite special, mainly bones. The esophagus of the bearded vulture is very elastic, so it can swallow large pieces of bones (as large as cow spines). If the bone is too large, the bearded vulture will fly to a height of 50 to 80 meters with it in its mouth and then aim it at the rock to let the bone fall into a size that can be swallowed. Bone marrow is the source of 90% of their food. In the season of food shortage, they also eat other small mammals, even insects, lizards, etc.

The breeding season of the bearded vulture is from December to May of the following year. The nests are located in large crevices and caves on the cliffs of high mountains. The nests are disc-shaped and mainly made of dead branches, lined with dead grass, twigs, cotton, waste fragments, animal hair, etc. Bearded vultures often fight for the best nesting locations, and sometimes bearded vultures also use old nests left by golden eagles. Each nest usually contains 2 eggs, occasionally 3 and 1, which are blunt oval, dark gray or dirty white. Incubation lasts about 55 to 60 days. The incubation work is shared by male and female birds. Generally, the second chick will hatch a week after the first one, and it is much smaller than the first chick. This small chick is actually just a substitute for the larger chick in case of an accident. In years when food is scarce, the smaller chicks sometimes die due to lack of food and become the food for the larger chicks.

In the early 20th century, the bearded vulture was a common bird in some high mountain areas of Europe. Later, the locals mistakenly believed that it was a pest to the livestock industry. Some even thought that the bearded vulture not only killed sheep, but also ate babies, so they hunted it, causing its number to drop sharply. In addition, the increasingly scarce food resources have led to the deterioration of the bearded vulture's situation. More than 60 years ago, the bearded vulture disappeared in the Alps in Western Europe. In 1913, the last bearded vulture in Italy died in the Aosta Valley. In Switzerland, the bearded vulture was killed in 1886. There are less than 50 pairs of this mysterious bird in Europe, most of which live in the wilderness of the Pyrenees. There are still a certain number of bearded vultures in China, mainly living in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and its adjacent areas. Although this large bird of prey is still relatively easy to see in western China, its number is gradually decreasing.

At the end of the 20th century, an elaborate reintroduction plan for the bearded vulture was implemented. Switzerland chose the national park of Graubünden as the habitat of the bearded vulture. In addition to Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy and Germany also participated in this plan. In 1987, the first bearded vultures were released into the wild in Austria. A year later, one of them flew 600 kilometers and settled in France.

Listed in the "IUCN Red List of Threatened Species" ver 3.1:

2004-2013 - Least Concern (LC).

2014-2021 - Near Threatened (NT).

Listed in China's "National Key Protected Wildlife List" (February 5, 2021) Level 1.

Protect wildlife and eliminate game.

Maintaining ecological balance is everyone's responsibility!

Distributed in China, Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, Greece, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Macedonia, Former Yugoslav Republic, Mongolia, United Kingdom, Nepal, Pakistan, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Tajikistan, United Republic of Tanzania, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Yemen.
Extinct in: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jordan, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, Serbia.
Reintroduction: Switzerland.
Migrant bird: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Djibouti, Germany, South Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Lebanon, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Portugal, Romania, Somalia, Syrian Arab Republic, Republic of Zimbabwe.
In China, it is distributed in Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Hubei, Yun

The Bearded Vulture has light gray-brown or yellow-white feathers on its head, and the sides of its head are mostly white or yellow-white. There are black bristles on the front of its face. There is a broad black eye stripe on its head that extends to the chin and is long and parallel to the chin. The "beard" formed by hard black hairs is connected into one; the eyes and the base of the mouth are also covered with black setae, and the base of the cereous setae is white. The upper back, short shoulder feathers and inner coverts are dark brown with yellow or white rachis stripes. The rest of the upper body is dark gray or dark brown with white rachis stripes. The tail is long, wedge-shaped, dark brown or grayish brown. The lower body is orange-yellow to yellow-brown, and the chest is particularly bright orange-yellow. Sometimes the lower body is white or milky white, but is obviously decorated with brown or reddish brown. The tarsometatarsal feathers reach to the toes or almost