Bearded Vulture

Gypaetus barbatus (Linnaeus, 1758)

95–125 cmLength262 cmWingspan5.7 kgWeight

This large raptor has narrow wings, a long tail, a tuft of black beard-like bristles on the chin and a feathered head.

Busiest months: May · Most records: China, Spain, Mongolia

Near Threatened

How to identify

Field marks

Forehead creamy-white; black band crosses eye and lores
Chin has stiff black beard-like bristles
Wings long and narrow; tail long and wedge-shaped
Upperparts grayish-blue to grayish-black; wings and tail dark gray

Male, female and young

Juvenile body mostly dark blackish-brown, breast gray-brown; takes five to seven years to acquire the adult appearance.

Voice

Usually very quiet; gives sharp whistles during breeding displays and a falcon-like “cheek-acheek” call near the nest.

Where and when it's recorded

Bearded Vulture has been recorded at 227 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 27 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

To protect this bird from disturbance, we don't list exact sites.

Countries and regions with the most records

China Spain Mongolia Lesotho Ethiopia Georgia India Kazakhstan

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus), also known as the lammergeier and ossifrage, is a very large bird of prey in the monotypic genus Gypaetus. The bearded vulture is the only known vertebrate whose diet consists of 70–90% bone.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions

How big is the Bearded Vulture?

The Bearded Vulture is about 95–125 cm long, with a wingspan of 262 cm and weighs around 5.7 kg.

Where does the Bearded Vulture live?

Its breeding range: Africa, Palearctic: northern, eastern, southern Africa; central, Southwest Asia. It is most often recorded in China, Spain and Mongolia.