Himalayan Griffon Vulture

This is my sixth vulture post in a row. The first four were found in Uganda in Africa and the last two were found in India in Asia. Four of them are listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. Today's subject, the Himalayan griffon vulture, also known as the Himalayan vulture and Himalayan griffon, is in much better shape than the others, it is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN. 

I have posted a number of photos, below, of different vultures I saw in Kaziranga NP in Assam India in December 2024 on iNaturalist and none have received confirming responses from any identifiers. So today, I've deep dived on the subject, also looking at the slender-billed vulture I saw in Kaziranga, looked at other alternatives, and now I'm feeling more confident in some of the identifications. 

First is a bird that I feel pretty confident is a juvenile Himalayan griffon vulture. I was with my guide in the Eastern Range of Kaziranga and it was standing in a tree very near our vehicle. My guide, who was very knowledgeable about birds, identified it as a Himalayan griffon. Following are the four photos I have of it. 

Next is the illustration of the juvenile Himalayan griffon from Birds of the World which is what I believe the bird is. 

Next I give cropped photos from my first photo to focus on parts of the bird that I believe confirm it to be a juvenile Himalayan griffon. 

This first photo is cropped to give a larger view of the bird. 

This photo confirms it has a white head, blue around the eye and a whitish bill. The juvenile has a darker bill than the adult (I'll show the adult illustration later), but the adult's bill becomes whiter. I believe this juvenile's bill is transitioning from dark to whitish. It also has brownish tuft around the neck with some white. The juvenile has black tuft and the adult has whitish tuft. I believe that it is transitioning on this bird as well. The feathers on the illustration show lines going through them on the wings and thighs. This cropped photo below shows the feather shafts surrounded by white which corresponds with the illustration. 

Here is the illustration from Birds of the World which shows the adult Himalayan griffon. Note the whitish bill and the whitish tuft around its neck. 

The following photos were also taken in the Eastern Range of Kaziranga out in an open grass plain. I believe these are also transitioning Himalayan griffons from juvenile to adult. Note the white necks, the lines growing through the feathers and the tuft around the neck transitioning to white. Of course, these photos are not as clear as the photos for the first vulture. 

These next two vultures, also in the Eastern Range of Kaziranga NP are the hardest for me to identify. They are possibly the same bird, with photos taken at different times, as we were looking at a number of vultures in the same area. The head and neck look too dark to be Himalayan griffons, more consistent with a slender-billed, but they do have whitish elements to them. They have dark bills, which are consistent with a juvenile Himalayan or a slender-billed. The feathers don't seem to have the same lines through them as a Himalayan and perhaps more consistent with a slender-billed. It has a ruff around the neck which appears to be more consistent with a Himalayan. If someone reads this and has an idea, I'd love to get a response. 

Slender-Billed Vulture

I've been focused on vultures for the past few days. So I'm going to leave Uganda and go back to Kaziranga NP in Assam, India, to look at some vultures I saw there. I'm having identification problems, so looking at them in detail may help. First, the slender-billed vulture. 

This is an illustration of the slender-billed vulture from Birds of the Worlds. 

The slender-billed vulture was first listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN in 2002 and the IUCN has estimated a decline of 99% over three generations (36 years) as of 2020. As of 2021 the total population of mature birds was estimated at 730 to 870. A Wikipedia article on the Fauna of Kaziranga National Park notes, "Kaziranga was once home to seven species of vultures. About 99% of the stable vulture population was killed by kidney failure caused by consuming the veterinary drug diclofenac in domestic animal carcasses. Of these, the red-headed vulture, and Eurasian black vulture are still near threatened due to their large range, but the Indian vulture, slender-billed vulture and the Indian white-rumped vulture have suffered cataclysmic loss of numbers and are virtually extinct in the wild, including Kaziranga. The Indian populations of the other two vultures have similar losses — the griffon vulture and the Himalayan griffon, but they are still well represented outside India." This kind of information helps me to understand how privileged I've been to see these Critically Endangered birds in both India and Africa. I'm particularly blown away at the estimated living population of slender-billed vultures world-wide and the number of them that I was able to see in Kaziranga. 

The slender-billed vulture used to be classified as an Indian vulture with the subspecies name of long-billed vulture. However, they have non-overlapping ranges (except note that both were and maybe are both present in Kaziranga) and can be easily identified from long distance by trained observers which is why they split them into separate species. The Indian vulture is usually only found south of the Ganges river and nests on cliffs. The slender-billed vulture is found from the Gangetic plain of India north, west to Himachal Pradesh, south as far as northern Odisha and east through Assam (where Kaziranga NP is located). It is also found in parts of Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Cambodia. Unlike the Indian vulture, they only nest in trees, and are solitary at that, and will not nest in proximity to any other nests. 

This is the illustration of the Indian vulture from Birds of the World. While talking about similarities and differences, it should be helpful.

The slender-billed has a darker head than the Indian, and a thinner bill. It is mostly gray with a pale rump and gray under-tail coverts. Its thighs have whitish down, the neck is black, long, bare and skinnier than the Indian. The head is black, angular, narrow and dark, with a bill that narrows midway with a light spot on the culmen (the dorsal bridge on the upper mandible). The head and neck are also very wrinkled in contrast to the Indian. Juveniles are similar, except for white down on the back base of the neck which it loses as it matures. 

While driving through the Central Range of Kaziranga, our guide identified the following as a nesting slender-billed vulture. It has also been confirmed as a slender-billed by two other observers on iNaturalist in addition to me. 

The following have also been confirmed by two observers (in addition to me) as slender-billed vultures on iNaturalist. They were found in the Eastern Range of Kaziranga. There must have been carrion nearby. 

The following, also in the Eastern Range of Kaziranga, was identified by one observer (in addition to me) as a slender-billed on iNaturalist. 

The following vulture has not been identified on iNaturalist. I included it in a photo with another vulture that I identified as a Himalayan griffon and it has not had any response from other identifiers. With the review I've made today, I believe it is a slender-billed vulture and will send it to iNaturalist to see if I can get substantiation from others. 

It has really been fun to concentrate on vultures for a few days. I've learned a lot. And I feel very privileged to have seen four species of Critically Endangered vultures within the last year. It is conceivable that I could outlive these species and that is horrible to contemplate for our society and our planet. 

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. 

 

 

White-Backed Vulture

The vultures of Kidepo Valley NP in Uganda were one of the things that endeared it to me. Next-in-line is the white-backed vulture which I did a prior post for on August 4, 2014 after our trip to Kenya and Tanzania. 

The event that brought vultures to the forefront was our National Geographic moment: a scrum (my word) or wake (a real word) of vultures feeding on a Ugandan kob (although we did not know what was underneath the feathers when we first arrived). It was so intense that all we could see was a living circular wheel of heaving, squawking feathers, with some vultures circling overhead and a few stepped back from the fray watching. 

We had no idea what was underneath that mass of pulsating feathers. Fortunately, it was near the road so we got a great view. At one point something scared the vultures off for a minute or two and we got a view of the kob. 

But before long, the vultures engulfed it again and the wake ensued. The white-backed vultures appeared to be in the majority, heads down, going at the carcass. The Ruppell's griffon vultures were the agitators, on top of the pile, leaping into the middle, biting those below it and squawking. They got the attention. 

Illustration of the white-backed vulture from Birds of the World.

It has only white down feathers on the head and neck and a white neck ruff. It has a white lower back and underwing coverts. It has dark brown plumage and black skin on the head and neck. The bill is black, compared to the white bill of the Ruppell's griffon vulture which is the easiest way to tell them apart. Juveniles are darker with contour feathers streaked with lighter brown. 

A darker juvenile in flight. 

An adult coming in for a landing.

Another coming in for a landing, revealing its white back. 

A Ruppell's griffon on the left and the rest are white-backed. 

Other sightings of the white-backed away from the kob carcass.

Another entertaining episode was when a young warthog was following a white-backed and causing it discomfort, forcing it to move several times before it flew away. 

While preparing my next post on the Ruppell's griffon vulture I found I had two good photos of white-backed vultures included. So I've moved them into the right place in my photo storage and insert them below. Both were on the termite mound near the kob wake, the same mound that the lappet-faced vulture stood on in my post a few days ago.