Vultures in Spain

[Tinkerbell]

Vultures, they are not the prettiest of birds, well some are, but their shear size has me in awe of them. How can an animal have a wing span of up to 9ft and such a tiny head? When you see them flying on the thermals they make it look so effortless, just the odd adjustment to the fingers on the wing and away they go across the sky. I just love to watch these birds fly over our house in Lanjaron.

We have 4 types of Vultures in Spain, the Bearded, which is the rarest disappearing from Andalucia in 1986, the Black, which is the largest of the 4 and very rare, the Egyptian, which is the smallest and only a summer visitor and the Griffon, which is the 3rd largest whos numbers are rapidly reducing but Spain has the largest population.

Each bird seems to have varying names, ive written the English, Other names, Latin and Spanish Versions:-
Griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus) Buitre leonardo
Bearded Vulture (or Lammergeier) (Gypaetus barbatus) Quebrantahuesos
Black Vulture (or Monk Vulture) (Aegypius monachus) Buitre negro
Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) Alimoche Común

When watching them glide through the sky you get an idea of size, but its not until you are lucky enough to see them on the ground that you can appreciate their size. If you look at our video section you can see an up close and personal video with Griffon Vultures