Griffon Vulture

Description:

The Griffon Vulture is 93–110 cm long with a 2.3–2.8 m wingspan, weighing up to 11 Kg. Hatched naked, it is a typical Old World vulture in appearance, with a very white 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. Like other vultures, it is a scavenger, feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals which it finds by soaring over open areas, often moving in flocks. It grunts and hisses at roosts or when feeding on carrion. The maximum lifespan recorded for the Griffon Vulture is 41.4 years, for a specimen in captivity.

Habitat:

It breeds on crags in mountains in southern Europe, north Africa, and Asia, laying one egg. Griffon Vultures may form loose colonies. The population is mostly resident. This one was photographed in the Sierra de Francia, exactly from Peña de Fracia, Salamanca, Spain

Notes:

This is the normal way to see a griffon vulture, which nowadays is not an uncommon sight. Although In Spain, nowadays there are tens of thousands of birds, it was at the brink of extinction 3 decades ago with just a few thousand around 1980. The Pyrenees population has apparently been affected by an EC ruling that due to danger of BSE transmission, no carcasses must be left on the fields for the time being. This has critically lowered food availability, and consequently, carrying capacity. 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 spanish name: Buitre leonado Camera Model: NIKON D300 Exposure Time: 1/250 sec. ISO Speed Rating: 200 Focal Length: 28.0 mm