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White-backed Vulture

Gyps africanus

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-1.53701, 35.1802

Field Notes

Description:

The white-backed vulture has a white neck ruff and a varied brown, grey and white plumage. As all vultures, it only has down feathers on the head and neck as to facilitate its work and keeping clean as a scavenger. Spotted here in the Masai Mara.

Habitat:

Savanna and open woodland, in sub-Saharan East and West Africa. The most-widely distributed of the African vulture species.

Notes:

This vulture is now found on the near-threatened list of the IUCN. White-backed vultures like to roost on trees, and the second shot shows a quintessential part of the African savanna landscape: the vulture tree. How many vultures can you see on that tree? The last shot shows the vulture at work on a blue wildebeest carcass. The vulture on the left is a Rüppell's vulture, and the large bird on the right is a marabou stork.

Reference Links:

White-backed Vulture

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (15)
DanielePralong
Thanks Karen! Yes, the marabous are frequent scavengers. They wait until the vultures have done most of the work.
KarenL
Wonderful series Daniele. I hadn't appreciated that stocks are scavengers too.
Wild Things
Daniele, the info in the document and the third pic are truly superb. What is thought to be good for one animal is the reason behind the decline of other. The same is true in cases of decline of owl population too, I have read that farmers use pesticide for rats/mice, the owls in turn eat the pests which are dead due to the pesticides and eventually the population of owls and other birds have gone down. Thanks again for sharing the info.
DanielePralong
Glad you found the paper interesting Atul. I've added an extra shot to the spotting that shows two other carrion birds at work with this vulture.
Atul
thanks Daniele for sharing the document,its really good info .
DanielePralong
Thank you Hayde. I've just added an extra shot to the spotting to show the vulture at work together with other carrion birds.
hayde
This is impressive, a great experience I bet. I love the blue beak!
DanielePralong
@Atul, thank you! You may be interested in the following document I came across the other day while researching some Indian vulture's ID; it's not that recent but still has good information: http://envfor.nic.in/divisions/wildlife/vulture_plan.pdf @Emma: yes, 16: you've won too! My experience in the Mara was awesome and incredibly intense. I only spent 48h there (a very short trip at the end of a 3 weeks work stint) but I saw much in that time, in particular so many prides of lions. Uploading it all is taking time, I am still travelling. I will write more in the notes of future spottings.
HemaShah
16!! Great pics. So how was your experience in general? Would love to hear about it!
Atul
wow , thats a great pic vultures are a rare sighting in India.Havent seen too many of them. great Daniele Thanks For sharing.
Wild Things
Lovely bird. As always, love the info you provide. I could count at least 16 of them on the tree?

Spotted for Missions

Mission
Birds of the World
Mission
2011 Best Wildlife Photo

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Photographed
PublishedSeptember 21, 2011

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