We had a day out in the snow on Friday testing some new crampons. To top off an already great day on our drive back down the mountain I noticed an enormous bird flying up from below us. In my head I was struggling to identify it, I thought too early for Griffon vultures, also didn't look like a flying barn door, it was wrong for a Golden eagle, then I noticed the tail, without doubt it was a Bearded vulture, also known as a Lammergeier, and it was heading straight towards us.
Initially I was confused because I am not used to seeing these birds low down, we were at 1330m, I associate them with the high mountains, but of course they are under snow at the moment, so I guess it's looking for food lower down. I shouted for Richard to stop, threw off my seatbelt, threw off the lenscap and shot out the car, snapped a few pictures and enjoyed being in the presence of this special bird. I'm still on a buzz 3 days later. This particular bird had a tracker on it, it would be interesting to find out where it had come from. Having looked at the pictures showing the different age plumage on the The Foundation for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture (FCQ), link below, I reckon this bird to be a subadult of 4-6 years old, please correct me if I am wrong.
A little bit of information about this vulture if you don't already know :-
It's Europe's rarest vulture. They do not hunt live prey. About 85 to 90% of their food are bones. If the bones are too big to swallow they take the bone up high and drop it onto rocks to smash it into smaller pieces.
In Andalucia there has been a reintroduction programme which started in 1996. The centre is in a nearby mountain range and those birds have been visiting the Sierra Nevada regularly until some eventually stayed to make this mountain range it's home. Also in 2024 the Sierra Nevada was chosen as a release site for the reintroduction programme, which you can read more of here. We have been lucky to see the birds on most of our trips into the Sierra Nevada mountains but this was my first up close encounter, I hope for many more.
Useful links
Vulture Conservation Foundation has plenty of information about this vulture and the other vulture species.
A live webcam from a Bearded vulture nest.
The Foundation for the conservation of the Bearded vulture website has a lot of useful information about the Bearded vulture.