Vultures, they are not the prettiest of birds, well some are, but their sheer size has me in awe of them. How can an animal have a wing span of up to 9ft and such a tiny head? When you see them flying on the thermals they make it look so effortless, just the odd adjustment to the fingers on the wing and away they go across the sky. I just love to watch these birds fly over our house in Lanjaron.
We have 4 types of Vultures in Spain, the Bearded, which is the rarest disappearing from Andalucia in 1986, the Black, which is the largest of the 4 and very rare, the Egyptian, which is the smallest and only a summer visitor and the Griffon, which is the 3rd largest whos numbers are rapidly reducing but Spain has the largest population.
Each bird seems to have varying names, ive written the English, Other names, Latin and Spanish Versions:-
Griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus) Buitre leonardo
Bearded Vulture (or Lammergeier) (Gypaetus barbatus) Quebrantahuesos
Black Vulture (or Monk Vulture) (Aegypius monachus) Buitre negro
Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) Alimoche Común
When watching them glide through the sky you get an idea of size, but its not until you are lucky enough to see them on the ground that you can appreciate their size. I have been lucky to see them close up as written in a previous post.
My friend Sarah, who has a horse trekking centre higher up the mountain, had a shock when she went outside recently to find a Griffon Vulture in one of the horse paddocks. This bird stayed with them for a couple of days, was picked up and taken to the Pino Genil Junta Sanctuary. Turns out it was a young bird who was just hungry, it was given a full weeks feeding before being released. I am green with envy that I didn’t get to see this bird up close and personal but Sarah has given me some photos of him which are posted below. From the photos you will see the beautiful feathers which allow these birds to live where they do, the huge beak which allows it to eat what it eats and you will get an idea of the enormous size of the bird but just remember this is a young one!!
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