tags: Bearded Vulture, Lamb Vulture, Lammergeyer, Gypaetus barbatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Lammergeyer, also known as the Bearded or Lamb Vulture (for reasons that I'll bet you can correctly guess at), Gypaetus barbatus, photographed on Mt Kilimanjaro, at just under 15000 feet, at Barafu Camp. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 24 July 2006 [larger view].
NIkon D2X 70-200 VR lens at 200, ISO 200, 1/1250, f 6.3.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
According to legend, the Greek playwright Aeschylus was killed in 456 or 455 BC by a tortoise dropped by an eagle. If this is true, it's likely that a Lammergeier was the eagle who committed this act since they drop animals and bones onto rocks to break them open so they can consume them. Lammergeiers are officially recognized as a threatened species in Iran. According to Iranian mythology, the rare Lammergeier the symbol of luck and happiness. If a Lammergeier shadow fell onto a person, that person would rise to a position of power. According to another, more recent, legend, Shimon Peres (whose original name was Shimon Persky) and companion David Ben-Gurion found a Lammergeier nest in the Negev desert. This species, which is known as "Peres" in Hebrew, so impressed Shimon that he adopted this name as his own.
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Looks like an adult Lammergeier to me. Light-colored head and body, dark on the face, wedge-shaped tail.
I thought so too Dan, Lammergeier or Bearded Vulture, Gypaetus barbatus, but the tail shape was throwing me slightly... until the following photo from Georgia (Caucusus):
Lammergeier, Kazbegi, Georgia, May 2007 (Steve Gantlett)
G. b. meridionalis (diamond-wedged tail)
It's a Lammergeier or "Bartgeier" (Bearded Vulture) as we call it in German.
There are some living in the one and only national park we have in Switzerland.