Black Vulture
The Black Vulture is also known as the Cinereous Vulture, Monk Vulture or Eurasian Black Vulture.
The Black Vulture is a huge bird, 39 to 47 inches long with a 99 to 119 inch wingspan, and is one of the largest birds of prey in the world. It has all dark blackish-brown plumage and even at a distance can be distinguished from the Griffon Vulture by its evenly broad "barn door" wings. It has the typical vulture unfeathered bald head (actually covered in fine down) and dark markings around the eye give it a menacing skull-like appearance. The beak is brown, with a blue-grey cere and the legs and feet are grey.
The Black Vulture breeds across southern Europe and Asia from Spain to Korea but is endangered throughout its European range. It is resident except in those parts of its range where hard winters cause limited movement and breeds in high mountains and large forests, nesting in trees or occasionally on cliff ledges.
The Black Vulture has declined over most of its range in the last 200 years due to eating poisoned and due to higher hygiene standards reducing the amount of available carrion. It is currently listed as near threatened. The decline has been the greatest in the western half of the range with extinction in many European countries (France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Romania) and north west Africa (Morocco, Algeria).
More recently, protection and deliberate feeding schemes have allowed some local recoveries in numbers, particularly in Spain, where numbers increased to about 1,000 pairs by 1992 after an earlier decline to 200 pairs in 1970. This colony has now spread its breeding grounds to Portugal.
Elsewhere in Europe, very small but increasing numbers breed in Bulgaria and Greece and a re-introduction scheme is under way in France. Trends in the small populations in Ukraine and European Russia and in Asian populations are not well recorded.
Date: 8th September 2010
Location: Sierra de Andújar, Andalucia, Spain - road to La Lancha and Embalse del Jándula
The Black Vulture is a huge bird, 39 to 47 inches long with a 99 to 119 inch wingspan, and is one of the largest birds of prey in the world. It has all dark blackish-brown plumage and even at a distance can be distinguished from the Griffon Vulture by its evenly broad "barn door" wings. It has the typical vulture unfeathered bald head (actually covered in fine down) and dark markings around the eye give it a menacing skull-like appearance. The beak is brown, with a blue-grey cere and the legs and feet are grey.
The Black Vulture breeds across southern Europe and Asia from Spain to Korea but is endangered throughout its European range. It is resident except in those parts of its range where hard winters cause limited movement and breeds in high mountains and large forests, nesting in trees or occasionally on cliff ledges.
The Black Vulture has declined over most of its range in the last 200 years due to eating poisoned and due to higher hygiene standards reducing the amount of available carrion. It is currently listed as near threatened. The decline has been the greatest in the western half of the range with extinction in many European countries (France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Romania) and north west Africa (Morocco, Algeria).
More recently, protection and deliberate feeding schemes have allowed some local recoveries in numbers, particularly in Spain, where numbers increased to about 1,000 pairs by 1992 after an earlier decline to 200 pairs in 1970. This colony has now spread its breeding grounds to Portugal.
Elsewhere in Europe, very small but increasing numbers breed in Bulgaria and Greece and a re-introduction scheme is under way in France. Trends in the small populations in Ukraine and European Russia and in Asian populations are not well recorded.
Date: 8th September 2010
Location: Sierra de Andújar, Andalucia, Spain - road to La Lancha and Embalse del Jándula
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Also in: South and north west Spain - September 2010
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