[1] It is not to be confused with the Eurasian griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus), which is a visually similar, sympatric species.

[3] The Himalayan vulture has dark brown greater covert feathers, tail and wing quills, but a pale buff uniform upperside and paler tipped inner secondaries; its legs are covered with buffy feathers and vary in colour from greenish grey to pale brown.

The wing and tail feathers are dark and contrast with the pale coverts and body, one of the best methods to distinguish this species from the slightly smaller griffon vulture.

[5][15] The Himalayan vulture lives mainly in the higher regions of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau at the elevation range of 1,200–5,500 m (3,900–18,000 ft).

It is distributed from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran to Pakistan to India, Nepal, Bhutan to western China and Mongolia.

[16] The Himalayan vulture perches on crags, favourite sites showing white marks from regular defecation.

This vulture makes a rattling sound when descending on a carcass and can grunt or hiss at roosts or when feeding on carrion.

[6] Historically, Himalayan vultures regularly fed on human corpses left out on Celestial burial grounds.

[6] The Himalayan vulture is fairly defensive around other scavengers, such as foxes or smaller felines, and typically dominates other meat-eaters at carcasses, though it is subservient to gray wolves (Canis lupus), snow leopards (Panthera uncia) and cinereous vultures (Aegypius monachus).

[22] The Himalayan griffon vulture populations have however not shown signs of rapid decline,[17] although reductions in nesting birds have been noted in some parts of its range in Nepal.