Bearded Vulture

Bearded Vulture

Gypaetus barbatus

Silhouette: Shyamal · PhyloPic

LCNTNear ThreatenedVUENCR
Daily sighting probability ~10% · With luck
at Langtang National Park

In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%

69 Verified sightings at Langtang National Park From 2019 to 2026
2,813 In all 15 parks
May Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Bearded Vulture

The bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus), also known as the lammergeier and ossifrage, is a very large bird of prey in the monotypic genus Gypaetus. The bearded vulture is the only known vertebrate whose diet consists of 70–90% bone.

Traditionally considered an Old World vulture, it actually forms a separate minor lineage of Accipitridae together with the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus), its closest living relative. It is not much more closely related to the Old World vultures proper than to, for example, hawks, and differs from the former by its feathered neck. Although dissimilar, the Egyptian and bearded vulture each have a lozenge-shaped tail—unusual among birds of prey. It is vernacularly known as Homa, a bird in Iranian mythology.

The bearded vulture population is thought to be in decline; in 2004, it was classified on the IUCN Red List as least concern but has been listed as near threatened since 2014. It lives and breeds on crags in high mountains in Iran, southern Europe, East Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Tibet, and the Caucasus. Females lay one or two eggs in mid-winter that hatch at the beginning of spring.

The genus name Gypaetus is from Ancient... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Call0:20

Spain · 2021

© Eduardo Realinho · XC653856 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Flight call0:39

France · 2020

© Stanislas Wroza · XC569323 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park 🇲🇳 Mongolia
~60%
2 Hemis National Park 🇮🇳 India
~50%
3 Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~40%
4 Vanoise National Park 🇫🇷 France
~30%
5 Aigüestortes National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~30%
6 Golden Gate Highlands National Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
~30%
7 Pyrénées National Park 🇫🇷 France
~20%
8 Hohe Tauern National Park 🇦🇹 Austria
~20%
9 Picos de Europa National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~20%
10 Langtang National Park 🇳🇵 Nepal
~10%
11 Cévennes National Park 🇫🇷 France
~10%
12 Mercantour National Park 🇫🇷 France
~10%
13 Jiuzhaigou National Park 🇨🇳 China
~10%
14 Awash National Park 🇪🇹 Ethiopia
<5%
15 Sierra Nevada National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Ulaanbaatar 🇲🇳 Mongolia
~10%

Zoos & Centres Where Found

# Zoo / Centre Country
1 Moscow Zoo 🇷🇺 Russia In captivity
2 Pairi Daiza 🇧🇪 Belgium In captivity
3 Prague Zoo 🇨🇿 Czechia In captivity
4 ZooParc de Beauval 🇫🇷 France In captivity
5 Tierpark Berlin 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
6 Barcelona Zoo 🇪🇸 Spain In captivity
7 Ostrava Zoo 🇨🇿 Czechia In captivity
8 Chomutov Zoo 🇨🇿 Czechia In captivity
9 Parc des oiseaux 🇫🇷 France In captivity
10 Yekaterinburg Zoo 🇷🇺 Russia In captivity
11 Zoobotánico Jerez 🇪🇸 Spain In captivity
12 Le rocher des aigles 🇫🇷 France In captivity
13 Nuremberg Zoo 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
14 Tiergarten Am Tiergarten 28 in Nürnberg 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
15 Parco Natura Viva 🇮🇹 Italy In captivity
16 Yerevan Zoo 🇦🇲 Armenia In captivity
17 Kyiv Zoo 🇺🇦 Ukraine In captivity
18 Berlin Zoological Garden 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
19 Natur- und Tierpark Goldau 🇨🇭 Switzerland In captivity
20 Nikolaev Zoo 🇺🇦 Ukraine In captivity
21 Schönbrunn Zoo 🇦🇹 Austria In captivity
22 Zoo d'Amnéville 🇫🇷 France In captivity
23 Aquarama Barcelona 🇪🇸 Spain In captivity
24 Plock Zoo 🇵🇱 Poland In captivity
25 Frankfurt Zoological Garden 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
26 Oasi Naturalistica di Sant'Alessio 🇮🇹 Italy In captivity
27 Pyrénées Animal Park 🇫🇷 France In captivity
28 Zoopark Limpopo 🇷🇺 Russia In captivity
29 Zoo de Córdoba 🇪🇸 Spain In captivity
30 Affenberg Landskron 🇦🇹 Austria In captivity
31 Alpenzoo Innsbruck 🇦🇹 Austria In captivity
32 Zoo La Garenne 🇨🇭 Switzerland In captivity
33 Adlerwarte Berlebeck 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
34 Adlerarena Burg Landskron 🇦🇹 Austria In captivity
35 Aquarium Berlin 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
36 Aquarium d'Amnéville 🇫🇷 France In captivity
37 Rákosův pavilon 🇨🇿 Czechia In captivity
38 Tiergarten Am Tiergarten 12 in Nürnberg 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
39 Tiergarten Am Tiergarten 14 in Nürnberg 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
40 Tiergarten Am Tiergarten 6 in Nürnberg 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
41 Velemlokárium 🇨🇿 Czechia In captivity
42 Donjon des aigles 🇫🇷 France In captivity
43 Fauconnerie du Puy du Fou 🇫🇷 France In captivity

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Bearded Vulture in Langtang National Park?

With luck

About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Bearded Vulture sighting in Langtang National Park on a given day, based on 69 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 75th most-seen of the 225 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Bearded Vulture in Langtang National Park?

May

In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Bearded Vulture in Langtang National Park on a given day, against about 10% in January–February, April, June and September–November, the lowest months.

What time of day is best to see a Bearded Vulture?

Between 9 am and noon

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Bearded Vulture sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Which relatives of the Bearded Vulture live in Langtang National Park?

Same family: Accipitridae

The closest relatives of the Bearded Vulture that you can see in Langtang National Park (family Accipitridae, Hawks, Eagles, and Kites) are Himalayan Vulture (about 20%), Mountain Hawk-Eagle (about 10%) and Eurasian Sparrowhawk (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.

Where does the Bearded Vulture sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Bearded Vulture is recorded against all the birds logged in Langtang National Park (69 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.

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