The cinereous vulture is Europe and Asia's giant with barn door wings
With wings spanning up to 3.1 metres and a weight of up to 12.5 kilograms, the cinereous vulture is the largest Old World vulture and one of the heaviest flying birds alive. One was spotted at 6,970 metres on Mount Everest, kept aloft by blood specially tuned to grab oxygen from thin air.
Also called the black or monk vulture, it ranges from Spain and Portugal through Greece, Turkey and the Middle East to Mongolia, Manchuria and Korea. Its German name, which means monk vulture, refers to the bald head and the ruff of feathers around the neck like a cowl. The name cinereous, meaning ash-coloured, was adopted to avoid confusion with the smaller American black vulture, a distant relative from a separate family.
It is dark blackish-brown all over, with a massive bill whose exposed ridge measures 8 to 9 centimetres, among the largest of any hawk-family bird. Its broad wings are nicknamed barn doors. Birds grow bigger from west to east: those in Spain and southern France average about 10 percent smaller than those in Central Asia. Unusually, males and females overlap broadly in size.
Unlike many vultures that nest in tight colonies, it nests alone or in loose groups; in Spain nests have been found 300 metres to 2 kilometres apart. Pairs reuse the same stick nest for years, and it can grow to 2 metres across and 3 metres deep, often decorated with dung and animal skins. Usually one egg is laid. Chicks in Mongolia climb from about 2 kilograms at a month old to nearly 16 before fledging, briefly outweighing their parents. Pairs perform synchronised flights and sometimes lock talons and spiral down through the sky.
By clearing carcasses it limits the spread of disease. A 2015 genome study comparing it with the bald eagle found genetic changes linked to its immune defences and stomach acid production, which help it cope with a diet full of pathogens.
Source: Cinereous vulture
