Cinereous Vulture, Buitre Negro

Description:

It is one of the two largest old world vultures. The Cinereous Vulture is believed to be the largest true bird of prey in the world.This huge bird measures 98–120 cm long with a 2.5–3.1 m wingspan. The body mass in this species can range from 7 to 14 kg. It is thus one of the world's heaviest flying birds. The condors, slightly larger, are now generally considered unrelated to the true raptors. The Cinereous Vulture is distinctly dark, with the whole body being dark brown excepting the pale head in adults, which is covered in fine down. The juveniles are blackish in coloration and, from a distance, flying birds can easily appear all black. The massive blue-gray bill is the largest of any living accipiterid, a feature enhanced by the relatively small skull of the species. The exposed culmen of the Cinereous Vulture measures 8–9 cm. The wings, with serrated leading edges, are held straight or slightly arched in flight and are broad, sometimes referred to as "barn door wings". Their flight is slow and buoyant, with deep, heavy flaps when necessary. The combination of huge size and dark coloration renders the Cinereous Vulture relatively distinct, especially against smaller raptors such as eagles or hawks. All potential Gyps vultures are distinguished by having paler, often streaky plumage, with bulging wing primaries giving them a less evenly broad-winged form. he Cinereous Vulture breeds in high mountains and large forests, nesting in trees or occasionally on cliff ledges, in loose colonies, with nests rarely being found in the same tree. In Spain, nests have been found from 300 m to 2 km apart from each other. The Cinereous Vulture feeds on carrion ranging from the largest mammals available to fish and reptiles. Among the vultures in its range, the Cinereous is best equipped to tear open tough carcass skins thanks to its powerful bill. It can even break apart bones, such as ribs, to access the flesh of large animals. It is dominate over other scavengers in its range, even over other large vultures such as Griffon Vulture or fierce ground predators such as foxes. This species can fly at a very high altitude. It has a specialised haemoglobin alphaD subunit of high oxygen affinity which makes it possible to take up oxygen efficiently despite the low partial pressure in the upper troposphere.

Habitat:

The Cinereous Vulture is a Eurasian species. The western limits of its range are in Spain and inland Portugal, with a reintroduced population in south France. They are found discontinuously to Greece, Turkey and throughout the central Middle East. Their range continues through Pakistan and northern India to its eastern limits in central Asia, where they breed in northern China, Manchuria, Mongolia and Korea. Their range is fragemented especially throughout their European range. Spotted at mediterranean forest over the Tagus river. Parque Nacional de Monfragüe.

Notes:

The Cinereous Vulture has declined over most of its range in the last 200 years in part due to poisoning by eating poisoned bait put out to kill dogs and other predators, and 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 and its entire breeding range in northwest Africa. 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 have now spread its breeding grounds to Portugal