Indian Vulture
Gyps indicus
The Indian Vulture (Gyps indicus) is a rare kites, old world vultures, eagles, and hawk found in 3 countries, weighing about 5.5 kg. The Indian vulture or long-billed vulture is a bird of prey native to the Indian subcontinent.
About the Indian Vulture
The Indian vulture or long-billed vulture is a bird of prey native to the Indian subcontinent. It is an Old World vulture belonging to the family of Accipitridae. It is a medium-sized vulture with a small, semi-bald head with little feathers, long beak, and wide dark colored wings. It breeds mainly on small cliffs and hilly crags in central India and south India.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
How to identify it
The Indian vulture is bulky and medium in size. Its body and covert feathers are pale brown with darker flight feathers. It has white thighs with scattered white fluff and broad wings with short tail feathers. It has a small, bare, dark-brown head with a long featherless neck, dark eyes and a long yellowish beak with a pale green-yellow cere. It is 89–103 cm (35–41 in) long and has a wing span of 2.22–2.58 m (7 ft 3 in – 8 ft 6 in). The bald heads allow them to maintain body temperature in response to the environment.
Where it lives
When to see it
Best months: January, February, March, April, May, June, October, November, December, with peak activity in February. It is a variable species across most of its range.
Easily confused with
Quick questions
- How do you identify an Indian Vulture?
- The Indian vulture is bulky and medium in size. Full identification notes are on this page.
- How big is an Indian Vulture?
- The Indian Vulture is a huge sized bird weighing about 5.5 kg.
- Where can you see an Indian Vulture?
- The Indian Vulture occurs in 3 countries, including India, Nepal and Pakistan.
- What birds look similar to an Indian Vulture?
- The Indian Vulture is most easily confused with the White-rumped Vulture, the Slender-billed Vulture and the Cape Vulture.
- Is the Indian Vulture endangered?
- The Indian Vulture is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
Learn the Indian Vulture for real
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