Egyptian vulture

Description:

Small white vulture, with a yellow to orange bare face and a thin yellow bill with sharp, curved black tip. Adult is almost entirely white, except for the flight feathers. Adult's white plumage is usually soiled to beige or brown color by sand or mud.

Habitat:

This specimen was seen in very arid areas of ancient city of Meroe (famous for its pyramids), in Sudan.

Notes:

I saw this bird's mate soaring high above, and while walking around pyramids, found the nest with the second bird (figuring on photos 3,4 and 5). This bird saw me quickly, but accepted a rather long photo-session. No one was around, my group of friends were busy with camel riding, and the bird and myself were undisturbed - so I was happy to shoot from all angles (and safe distance: safe for the bird). Interesting thing is that, later on, while loading some of photos on African Bird Image Database (http://www.africanbirdclub.org/afbid), I realized that I was photographing the very same nest seen 6 years earlier by Catherine Chatham (http://www.africanbirdclub.org/afbid/bir...). On her photo, the nest looks fresher (many feces on my photos, witnessing its regular use), but from the pattern on the cracks on walls of pyramid, you can see it was the same nest.