Egyptian Vulture

Appearance

The adult's plumage is white, with black flight feathers in the wings. Wild birds usually appear soiled with a rusty or brown shade to the white plumage, derived from mud or iron-rich soil. Captive specimens without access to soil have clean white plumage.

The adult Egyptian vulture measures 47–65 cm (19–26 in) from the point of the beak to the extremity of the tail feathers.

Published measurements include mass about 94.

Rasmussen and Anderton (2005) suggest that this variation may need further study, particularly due to the intermediate black-tipped bill described in rubripersonatus.

Range and habitat

Egyptian vultures are widely distributed across the Old World with their breeding range from southern Europe to northern Africa east to western and southern Asia. In Armenia, breeding pairs have been found up to 2,300 meters a.s.l. Vagrants may occur as far south as in South Africa although they bred in the Transkei region prior to 1923.

Populations of this species declined in the 20th century and some island populations are endangered by hunting, accidental poisoning, and collision with power lines. The population of Egyptian vultures in the Canary Islands has been isolated from those in Europe and Africa for a significant period of time leading to genetic differentiation.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Diet and breeding

The Egyptian vulture is usually seen singly or in pairs, soaring in thermals along with other scavengers and birds of prey, or perched on the ground or atop a building. Wild rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) form a significant part of the diet of Spanish vultures.

Studies suggest that they feed on ungulate faeces to obtain carotenoid pigments responsible for their bright yellow and orange facial skin. The breeding season is in spring. During the beginning of the breeding season, courting pairs soar high together and one or both may make steep spiralling or swooping dives.

In crisis

Healthy adults do not have many predators, but human activities pose many threats. Egyptian vulture populations have declined in most parts of its range. In Spain, that holds about 50% of the European population suggested causes of decline include poisoning by accumulation of lead, pesticides (especially due to large-scale use in the control of Schistocerca gregaria locust swarms), and electrocution.

The vulture population there declined by 30% in the ten years between 1987 and 1998. The total population in 2000 was estimated at 130 individuals, among them 25–30 breeding pairs.

CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.

Egyptian Vulture is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Egyptian Vulture, Wikidata item Q33504. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.