Griffon Vulture
The Griffon Vulture is a typical Old World vulture in appearance with a white bald head, very broad wings and short tail feathers. It has a white neck ruff and yellow bill. The buff body and wing coverts contrast with the dark flight feathers. They are very large birds around 37 to 43 inches long with a 91 to 106 inches wingspan.
Like other vultures, the Griffon Vulture is a scavenger, feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals which it finds by soaring over open areas, often moving in flocks.
The population is mostly resident in its breeding range in the mountains of southern Europe, north Africa, and Asia.
In Spain, there are tens of thousands of birds from a low of a few thousand around 1980 although the Pyrenees population has apparently been affected by an EU ruling that due to danger of BSE transmission, no carcasses must be left on the fields for the time being. Although the Griffon Vulture does not normally attack larger living prey, there are reports of Spanish Griffon Vultures killing weak, young or unhealthy living animals as they do not find enough carrion to eat.
Date: 30th April 2012
Location: south of Brozas, western Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain
Like other vultures, the Griffon Vulture is a scavenger, feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals which it finds by soaring over open areas, often moving in flocks.
The population is mostly resident in its breeding range in the mountains of southern Europe, north Africa, and Asia.
In Spain, there are tens of thousands of birds from a low of a few thousand around 1980 although the Pyrenees population has apparently been affected by an EU ruling that due to danger of BSE transmission, no carcasses must be left on the fields for the time being. Although the Griffon Vulture does not normally attack larger living prey, there are reports of Spanish Griffon Vultures killing weak, young or unhealthy living animals as they do not find enough carrion to eat.
Date: 30th April 2012
Location: south of Brozas, western Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain
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Also in: South and west Spain - April and May 2012
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