Description:

Huge, with a mostly feathered head and black feather-tuft drooping over thin bill and long wedge-shaped tail. Adult has pale head with black mask and beard, greyish-black upperparts, wings and tail, and cream or rufous-orange underparts contrasting with black underwing-coverts. Juvenile has blackish head-neck and grey-brown underparts.

Distribution:

Common resident and partial altitudinal migrant in higher elevations all across Gilgit-Baltistan. Prefers mountain ranges with rugged topography, rocky sites and sheer crags, with little or low vegetation and surrounding plains, as high as 5000m.

Behavior:

Swallows small bones whole; carries bones it cannot swallow up into air and drops them from height onto favored rocky area; bird then descends to eat the smaller pieces that result. Diet unique among vertebrates in being dominated by bones. Prefers old bones to fresh ones, perhaps because they are lighter, large bones to small ones and bones with high fat content.

Photo Gallery:

Range & Occurrence:

Resident Species

Summer Breeder

Winter Visitor

Passage Migrant

Distribution Map of Lammergeier in Gilgit-Baltistan (Status: )

Seasonal Occurrence of Lammergeier

Resources:

Birds of Pakistan: Helm Field Guides (R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
The Birds of Pakistan (T. J. Roberts)
Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (C. Inskipp, R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide (P. Rasmussen & J. Anderton)
Birds of India: Collins Field Guide (N. Arlott)
Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan (S. Ali & S. D. Ripley)
Handbook of the Birds of the World (https://www.hbw.com)
The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World, 6th Edition
iNaturalist BoGB (inaturalist.org/projects/birds-of-gilgit-baltistan)
Birds of Gilgit-Baltistan (http://fb.me/birdsgb)

*Gallery images on this page are shared from flickr.com, and are copyrighted to their respective creators or owners.