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.
Traditionally considered an Old World vulture, it actually forms a separate minor lineage of Accipitridae together with the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus), its closest living relative. It is not much more closely related to the Old World vultures proper than to, for example, hawks, and differs from the former by its feathered neck. Although dissimilar, the Egyptian and bearded vulture each have a lozenge-shaped tail—unusual among birds of prey. It is vernacularly known as Homa, a bird in Iranian mythology.
The bearded vulture population is thought to be in decline; in 2004, it was classified on the IUCN Red List as least concern but has been listed as near threatened since 2014. It lives and breeds on crags in high mountains in Iran, southern Europe, East Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Tibet, and the Caucasus. Females lay one or two eggs in mid-winter that hatch at the beginning of spring.
Etymology The genus name Gypaetus is from Ancient Greek gupaietos, a corrupt form of hupaietos meaning "eagle" or "vulture". The specific epithet barbatus is Latin meaning "bearded" from barba, "beard". The name "lammergeier" originates from the German word , which means "lamb-vulture". The name stems from the belief that it attacks lambs. The common name "ossifrage" is derived from the Latin word ossifragus, which literally means "bone-breaking," referring to the bird's diet consisting largely of bone. Ossifragus is also the root word for the osprey, which is within the same order, Accipitriformes, as vultures.
Taxonomy The bearded vulture was formally described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the vultures and condors in the genus Vultur and coined the binomial name Vultur barbatus. Linnaeus based his account on the "bearded vulture" that had been described and illustrated in 1750 by George Edwards who had based his hand-coloured etching on a specimen that had been collected at Santa Cruz near the town of Oran in Algeria. Linnaeus specified the type locality as Africa, but in 1914 this was restricted to Santa Cruz by Ernst Hartert.
The bearded vulture is the only species in the genus Gypaetus that was introduced in 1784 by Gottlieb Storr.
Subspecies Two subspecies are recognised: +ImageSubspeciesNotesG. b. barbatusIncludes G. b. hemachalanus and G. b. aureus in southern Europe and northwest Africa to northeast China through the Himalayas to Nepal and west PakistanG. b. meridionalis In southwestern Arabia and northeastern, eastern and southern Africa Compared to the nominate subspecies, G. b. meridionalis lacks the black ear tuft and black chin bristles, has less heavily feathered tarsi, has overall plumage that is not as thick, and are smaller in size.
Historically, the species has had up to 5 subspecies. Only two are still considered valid.
Description
The bearded vulture is long with a wingspan of . It weighs , with the nominate race averaging and G. b. meridionalis of Africa averaging . In Eurasia, vultures found around the Himalayas tend to be slightly larger than those from other mountain ranges. Females are slightly larger than males. It is essentially unmistakable with other vultures or indeed other birds in flight due to its long, narrow wings, with the wing chord measuring , and long, wedge-shaped tail, which measures in length. The tail is longer than the width of the wing.Lee, W-S; Koo, T-H; Park, J-Y (2005). A Field Guide to the Birds of Korea. p. 98. . The tarsus is relatively small for the bird's size, at . The proportions of the species have been compared to a falcon, scaled to an enormous size.
Unlike most vultures, the bearded vulture does not have a bald head. This species is relatively small-headed, although its neck is powerful and thick. It has a generally elongated, slender shape, sometimes appearing bulkier due to the often hunched back of these birds. The gait on the ground is waddling and the feet are large and powerful. The adult is mostly dark grey, rusty, and whitish in colour. It is grey-blue to grey-black above. The creamy-coloured forehead contrasts against a black band across the eyes and lores and bristles under the chin, which form a black beard that give the species its English name. Bearded vultures are variably orange or rust of plumage on their head, breast, and leg feathers, but this is thought to be cosmetic. This colouration comes from dust-bathing or rubbing iron-rich mud on its body. They also transfer the brown colour to the eggs. The tail feathers and wings are dark grey. The juveniles are dark black-brown over most of the body, with a grey-brown breast, gradually attaining more adult-like plumage over successive years; they take five to seven years to reach full maturity, with the first breeding at eight years or older. The bearded vulture is silent, apart from shrill whistles in their breeding displays and a falcon-like cheek-acheek call made around the nest.
Physiology
The acidity of the bearded vulture's stomach acid has been estimated at around pH 1. Large bones are digested in about 24 hours, aided by slow mixing or churning of the stomach contents. Protein retained in the bone matrix makes bones a more feasible energy source compared to that of muscle, with 140g of dry bones containing protein equivalent to 111g of muscle. The high lipid content of bone marrow make fresh bones exceed the energy content of muscle, with fresh bones containing about 108% of the energy of fresh meat by weight. A skeleton left on a mountain will dehydrate and become protected from bacterial degradation, and the bearded vulture can return to consume the remainder of a carcass even months after the soft parts have been consumed by other animals, larvae, and bacteria.
Distribution and habitat
The bearded vulture is sparsely distributed across a vast range. It occurs in mountainous regions in the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Arabian Peninsula, the Caucasus region, the Zagros Mountains and Alborz Mountains in Iran, the Koh-i-Baba in Bamyan, Afghanistan, the Altai Mountains, the Himalayas, Ladakh in northern India, and western and central China. In Africa, it lives in the Atlas Mountains, the Ethiopian Highlands and south from Sudan to northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, central Kenya, and northern Tanzania. An isolated population inhabits the Drakensberg in South Africa. It has been reintroduced in several places in Spain, such as the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas Jaén, the Province of Castellón and Asturias. The resident population as of 2018 was estimated at 1,200 to 1,500 individuals.
In Israel it is locally extinct as a breeder since 1981, but young birds have been reported in 2000, 2004, and 2016. The species is extinct in Romania, the last specimens from the Carpathians being shot in 1927. However, unconfirmed sightings of the bearded vulture happened in the 2000s, and in 2016 a specimen from a restoration project in France also flew over the country before returning to the Alps.
In southern Africa, the total population as of 2010 was estimated at 408 adult birds and 224 young birds of all age classes therefore giving an estimate of about 632 birds.
In Ethiopia, it is common at garbage dumps tips on the outskirts of small villages and towns. Although it occasionally descends to , the bearded vulture is rare below altitudes of and normally resides above in some parts of its range. It typically lives around or above the tree line which are often near the tops of the mountains, at up to in Europe, in Africa and in central Asia. In southern Armenia, it breeds below if cliff availability permits. It has even been observed living at elevations of in the Himalayas and been observed flying at a height of .
There are two records of bearded vultures from the Alps reintroduction schemes which have reached the United Kingdom, with the first sighting taking place in 2016 in Wales and the Westcountry. A series of sightings took place in 2020, when an individual bird was sighted separately over the Channel Island of Alderney after migrating north through France, then in the Peak District, Derbyshire, Cambridgeshire, and Lincolnshire. The bird, nicknamed 'Vigo' by Tim Birch of the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, originated from the reintroduced population in the Alps. As these two birds were both released captive birds, not wild, they have been placed in Category E ("escapes"), and not added to the formal British bird list.
A confirmed first sighting in Sweden occurred outside of Arvika in western Sweden in June 2022. Another specimen was sighted on Öland in June 2026.
Behaviour and ecology Diet and feeding
The bearded vulture is a scavenger, feeding mostly on the remains of dead animals. Its diet comprises mammals (93%), birds (6%) and reptiles (1%), with medium-sized ungulates (i.e. hoofed mammals) forming a large part of the diet. It usually disdains the actual meat and typically lives on 85–90% bones including bone marrow. This is the only living bird species that specializes in feeding on bones. Meat and skin only makes up a small part of what the adults eat, but scraps of meat or skin makes up a larger amount of the chicks' diet.ADW: Gypaetus barbatus - Animal Diversity Web The bearded vulture can swallow whole or bite through brittle bones up to the size of a lamb's femur and its powerful digestive system quickly dissolves even large pieces. Their favoured variants of bones to consume consist of fattier and elongated bones like tarsal bones and tibias. They contain higher levels of oleic acid that is more nutritional for them than smaller bones, which contain less accessible bone marrow. The bearded vulture will crack bones too large to be swallowed by carrying them in flight to a height of above the ground and then dropping them onto rocks below, which smashes them into smaller pieces and exposes the nutritious marrow. They can fly with bones up to in diameter and weighing over , or nearly equal to their own weight.
After dropping the large bones, the bearded vulture spirals or glides down to inspect them and may repeat the act if the bone is not sufficiently cracked. This learned skill requires extensive practice by immature birds and takes up to seven years to master. Its old name of ossifrage ("bone breaker") relates to this habit. Less frequently, these birds have been observed trying to break bones (usually of a medium size) by hammering them with their bill directly into rocks while perched. During the breeding season they feed mainly on carrion. They prefer the limbs of sheep and other small mammals and they carry the food to the nest, unlike other vultures which feed their young by regurgitation.