As we are spending more time indoors, it is perfectly normal for vulture lovers alike to feel nature and vulture deficient. To feel closer to our beloved vultures, we compiled a blog featuring interesting and insightful videos as well as live nest cameras of Europe’s vultures. You can watch these from the comfort of your own home to enjoy these magnificent species, but also learn more about them!
Bearded Vulture
Enjoy a video that documented the whole breeding period, from nest building to the chick fledging, of the only Bearded Vulture pair in Andorra, which captured the attention of millions and showed the magnificence of this species!
The VCF works to restore the wild populations of Europe’s rarest vulture based on a captive breeding programme. Reintroduction or restocking actions take a lot of effort and time. Watch what it took to breed Bearded Vulture chick BG1055 in captivity to facilitate the reintroduction of the species. Trust us, the story of this individual chick is like no other!
You can also watch other Bearded Vulture videos from this year in captivity and how we are taking measures to save the species with the challenges from the global pandemic.
Within our Bearded Vulture Captive Breeding Network (EEP), some zoos and breeding centres have webcams where the birds can be observed live. Here are a few: Natur- und Tierpark Goldau and Breeding Center Asters.
Egyptian Vulture
The Egyptian Vulture is on the brink of extinction in Greece and currently has less than five pairs remaining, with the driving force for their decline being poisoning. Watch how people from around the world are joining forces to safeguard the last of the Egyptian Vultures in the Balkans.
A milestone research paper reveals incredible flexibility of migration among Egyptian Vultures as well as their exposure to threats in over 40 countries along their migratory routes. This work includes data from 35+ authors and the migration journeys of almost 100 individual birds. Watch the animated tracks of the migration journeys of 94 individual Egyptian Vultures tracked between 2010 and 2019, that were analysed in the journal “Spatial and Temporal Variability in Migration of a Soaring Raptor Across Three Continents”.
It is currently the breeding season of Egyptian Vultures, and our colleagues from the Egyptian Vulture New LIFE project are live streaming the breeding period of a pair in the Balkans from their nest. Both vultures returned from their wintering grounds in Africa in early April. Let’s hope that by the end of May we can witness the hatching of chicks.
Cinereous Vulture
Our colleagues from SEO BirdLife have been live-streaming the breeding period of Cinereous Vultures located on a large Scots pine in the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park in Madrid for years now. This area is home to a large colony of Cinereous Vultures of about 350 pairs in the Sierra de Guadarrama in which the nucleus of Alto Lozoya (Rascafría, Madrid) is the most important with about 140 pairs. It is also one of the most important colonies worldwide. The incubation of the egg lasts about 55-60 days and care of the chick around 100-115 days, making it one of the longest vulture breeding periods.
Watch the feeding hierarchy between Griffon Vultures and Cinereous Vultures. The largest vulture has priority.
Griffon Vulture
With the LIFE Under Griffon Wings project, we are reinforcing the Griffon Vulture population in Sardinia together with our partners by tackling threats and releasing vultures. Ahead of their release, vultures are tagged with GPS transmitters. Watch the vultures leaving their acclimatisation aviary for a life in the wild and learn how we tag vultures by Franziska Loercher from the VCF and Fiammetta Berlinguer from the University of Sassari.
These large vultures need a lot of energy to take flight and rely on the sun to get airborne, utilising thermals to take off. The amazing David Attenborough explains how they do so in the following video.
Watch the most significant moments of the breeding season of Griffon Vultures directly from their nest. We have been the breeding season progress of a pair from a live nest cameral in Israel. The young chick is not so little anymore!
Together for Vultures
For the past few years, we have been involved in most vulture conservation projects across Europe, and together with our partners, we have been working across different aspects of vulture conservation to help protect Europe’s vultures. We are at the forefront of vulture conservation planning and action, having co-developed the Vulture MSAP, the international vulture species action plan to conserve African-Eurasian vultures endorsed by CMS. Working across different projects, from tackling threats to reintroducing vultures, we have seen the return of vultures in different regions of Europe. Learn what we are doing to conserve these valuable species.
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