Gypaetus barbatus
The Alps' largest bird of prey, with long narrow wings, a diamond-shaped tail and a black beard under the bill. It feeds mainly on bones, which it drops onto rocks from the air to break them. After disappearing from the Alps, it was reintroduced from 1986 onwards, notably in the Swiss National Park.
Above a scree slope, a huge bird drops a bone, dives towards the fragments and starts again if the bone has not given way. The bearded vulture is preparing its meal.
According to the Swiss Ornithological Institute, no bird in the Alps is larger: a wingspan of 250 to 280 cm, for 5 to 7 kg. Its wings are slimmer than those of other vultures, and its long tail ends in a wedge. A beard of dark feathers hangs under the bill of both male and female, though its purpose is still unknown. The adult has a pale head and belly; the young bird stays dark brown until it is about four years old.
According to the Swiss Breeding Bird Atlas, it frequents mountains rich in ungulates, wild or domestic. It glides along the slopes, fairly low, because it looks for carcasses by sight. In Switzerland, its nests are on cliffs between 1250 m, at Ardon in Valais, and 2560 m, in the Val Mora in the Grisons.
According to the Foundation Pro Bearded Vulture, no other vulture has specialised in bones. A highly acidic gastric juice dissolves their calcium, and its windpipe opens almost at the tip of the bill: it can breathe even with a bone stuck across its throat. The pair starts incubating at the end of December: the chicks thus hatch as winter ends, when there is no shortage of carcasses, because at first they need meat. Two eggs are usually laid, but the older chick gets rid of the younger. According to the Ornithological Institute, the young bird fledges after 100 to 110 days.
Wrongly blamed for snatching lambs, it was exterminated: the last known shooting in the Alps dates from 1913, in the Aosta Valley. It is returning thanks to captive-bred young birds, set free across the Alps since 1986. In Switzerland, the National Park began the releases in 1991 and had set 26 birds free by 2007. The country’s first broods date from that same year, at Derborence (VS) and at the Pass dal Fuorn (GR). The country has 24 to 30 pairs (2021–2024), and the species is critically endangered. Across the Alps, the population, around 350 birds, could double within ten years, but just nine more deaths a year would be enough to send it into decline. The causes: lead, illegal shooting, cables, wind turbines, disturbance at the nest.
Sources: Swiss Ornithological Institute, species account, text of the Swiss Breeding Bird Atlas 2013–2016 and press release “Ça plane pour le gypaète” [Smooth gliding for the bearded vulture] (2025); Foundation Pro Bearded Vulture, “Biologie” [Biology] and “Réintroduction” [Reintroduction] pages; Swiss National Park, bearded vulture portrait.
