Ruppell's Griffon Vulture

This is my fourth post in a row on vultures. It was precipitated by a recent trip to Kidepo Valley NP in Uganda where we witnessed four species of vultures and what we call a National Geographic moment (a moment of incredible wild awe): a wake of more than 100 vultures noisily and aggressively feeding on a Ugandan kob. Judy took videos of it on her cellphone and I've posted three of them at the end of this post courtesy of her. Our guides saw all four species at the wake: White-headed vulture, lappet-faced vulture, white-backed vulture and Ruppell's griffon vulture. I saw only three, but I saw the white-headed vulture, the one I didn't see at the wake, several times later. Only two of them, the white-backed and Ruppell's show up in the videos and the dominant vulture, the one I most associate with the wake, was the Ruppell's griffin. First information on the Ruppell's griffon before getting to the videos.

A Ruppell's griffon vulture on the left, with a white-backed vulture on the right seemingly bowing at its feet on a termite mound. The photo helps illustrate how I tell the two species of vultures apart: The Ruppell's griffon has a white bill and the white-backed has a black bill. The illustration below, is almost a split image of the Ruppell's photo above, just in a reversed direction.

Illustration of a Ruppell's griffon vulture from Birds of the World. 

A range map of the Ruppell's griffon from Birds of the World. Uganda, where we saw these birds, is in the shaded area on the bottom right of the map. Lake Victoria is the large lake in the shading that is not shaded (the top portion of Lake Victoria is in Uganda), and Kidepo Valley NP is in the upper right hand corner (northeast) of Uganda. 

The Ruppell's griffon is larger than the white-backed vulture which it is often seen with at wakes. Males and females look alike, mottled black or brown overall, with a whitish brown underbelly, and thin, dirty-white fluff covering the head and neck. The base of the neck has a white collar, the eye is yellow or amber, it has a white to yellow or gold beak, and the head has no feathers, an adaptation because of its tendency to stick its head inside the prey while eating (you'll notice that in the videos). 

A Ruppell's griffon coming in for a landing.

This photo just screams attitude, which the Ruppell's griffon has in spades. 

An additional landing here and in the next photo below.

Juveniles have a black bill and black eye, and broadly streaked plumage. 

The Ruppell's griffon at front left, standing on the neck of the kob, was one of the dominant vultures while we watched. The next photo shows it sticking its head into the kob and the photo after that shows the head and neck of one that has had full immersion into the kob. The videos will show the full immersion. 

Ruppell's griffons are usually silent, but become quite vocal at a carcass, where they squeal, squawk, hiss and give grating sounds. The noises in the videos are predominantly theirs. 

They are the highest flying bird in the world. One was sucked into the engine of an airplane flying at 37,000 feet over the Ivory Coast in 1973. It flies six to seven hours a day, cruises at a speed of 22 miles per hour and can travel over 60 miles to find food. 

Next are some random photos.

I like this one. It has a snake-like neck. 

It was listed as Near Threatened in 2007, updated to Endangered in 2012 and then updated to Critically Endangered in 2015.