Gyps himalayensis
Silhouette: Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The Himalayan vulture (Gyps himalayensis) or Himalayan griffon vulture is an Old World vulture native to the Himalayas and foothills in North and Northeastern India, as well as the adjacent Tibetan Plateau. After the cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus), it is the second-largest Old World vulture species, and among the world's largest true raptors. It is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. It is not to be confused with the Eurasian griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus), which is a visually similar, sympatric species.
The Himalayan vulture has dark brown greater covert feathers, tail and wing quills, but a pale buff uniform upperside and paler tipped inner secondaries; its legs are covered with buffy feathers and vary in colour from greenish grey to pale brown. The underside and under-wing coverts are pale brown or buff, almost white in some individuals. The whitish down on the head of immatures changes to yellowish in adults who have a long and pale brown ruff with white streaks and long and spiky ruff feathers.
The pale blue facial skin is lighter than the dark blue in Gyps fulvus with this species having a yellowish bill. In flight the long fingers are splayed... Wikipedia →
Call0:27
China · 2013
© Tomas Carlberg · XC175964 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 2 | Jiuzhaigou National Park | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 3 | Kaziranga National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Hemis National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Langtang National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 6 | Jim Corbett National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 8 | Manas National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Royal Bardia National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 10 | Royal Manas National Park | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | |
| 11 | Namdapha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 12 | Bandhavgarh National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 13 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 14 | Keoladeo National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ZooParc de Beauval | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 2 | Zlín-Lešná Zoo | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 3 | Parc des oiseaux | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 4 | Xinjiang Tianshan Safari Park | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 5 | Arignar Anna Zoological Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Beijing Wildlife Park | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 7 | Nehru Zoological Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Ningbo Wildlife Park | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 9 | Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Guangzhou Zoo | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 11 | National Zoo of Malaysia | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 12 | Almaty Zoo | 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan | |
| 13 | Thiruvananthapuram Zoo | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 14 | Himalayan Zoological Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 15 | Gopalpur Zoo | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 16 | Penza Zoo | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 17 | Зоопарк Каракол | 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan | |
| 18 | Chittagong Zoo | 🇧🇩 Bangladesh | |
| 19 | Farm in the City | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 20 | Donjon des aigles | 🇫🇷 France |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Himalayan Vulture sighting in Jiuzhaigou National Park on a given day, based on 79 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 7th most-seen of the 131 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and May
In those months about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Himalayan Vulture in Jiuzhaigou National Park on a given day, against about 20% in November, the lowest month. January to March have too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Himalayan Vulture sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
2nd of 14
Of the 14 parks where we can rate Himalayan Vulture sightings, Jiuzhaigou National Park ranks 2nd at about 50%. The best odds are in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park (Mongolia, about 60%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Accipitridae
The closest relatives of the Himalayan Vulture that you can see in Jiuzhaigou National Park (family Accipitridae, Hawks, Eagles, and Kites) are Black Kite (about 30%), Golden Eagle (about 20%) and Himalayan Buzzard (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Himalayan Vulture is recorded against all the birds logged in Jiuzhaigou National Park (79 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
