Himalayan Vulture

How to identify

Field marks

1. Body pale, flight feathers and tail feathers dark
2. Face skin pale blue, bill yellowish
3. Ruff feathers long and pointed, pale brown with white stripes
4. Pale patagial stripes on underwing in flight

Male, female and young

Juvenile has whitish down on head, becoming pale yellow in adult; juvenile bill paler.

Voice

Gives quacking sounds when landing on a carcass, and gurgles and hisses when resting or feeding.

Similar species

Griffon Vulture

Himalayan Vulture is slightly larger, with pale blue face skin (dark blue in Griffon Vulture); dark flight feathers and tail feathers contrast strongly with pale body.

Indian Vulture

Similar in body color, but Himalayan Vulture has a stouter, more robust bill.

Where and when it's recorded

Himalayan Vulture has been recorded at 379 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 17 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. PangotIndia381 records
2. PelelaBhutan373 records
3. Kaziranga NP & Surroundings – Eastern RangeIndia333 records

Countries and regions with the most records

IndiaChinaNepalBhutanMongoliaKyrgyzstanSingaporeThailand

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 Himalayan vulture (Gyps himalayensis) or Himalayan griffon vulture is an Old World vulture native to the Himalayas and foothills in North and Northeastern India, as well as the adjacent Tibetan Plateau. After the cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus), it is the second-largest Old World vulture species, and among the world's largest true raptors. It is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List.

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

Questions