It lives and breeds on crags in high mountains in Iran, southern Europe, East Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Tibet,[1] and the Caucasus.

The bearded vulture was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.

Edwards had based his hand-coloured etching on a specimen that had been collected at Santa Cruz near the town of Oran in Algeria.

[8] Linnaeus specified the type locality as Africa, but in 1914 this was restricted to Santa Cruz by the German orthithologist Ernst Hartert.

[9][7] The bearded vulture is now the only species placed in the genus Gypaetus that was introduced in 1784 by the German naturalist Gottlieb Storr.

[10][11] The genus name Gypaetus is from Ancient Greek gupaietos, a corrupt form of hupaietos meaning "eagle" or "vulture".

Bearded vultures are variably orange or rust of plumage on their head, breast, and leg feathers, but this is thought to be cosmetic.

[3] The bearded vulture is silent, apart from shrill whistles in their breeding displays and a falcon-like cheek-acheek call made around the nest.

[1] In Africa, it lives in the Atlas Mountains, the Ethiopian Highlands and south from Sudan to northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, central Kenya, and northern Tanzania.

[14] It has been reintroduced in several places in Spain, such as the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas Jaén, the Province of Castellón and Asturias.

[23] However, unconfirmed sightings of the bearded vulture happened in the 2000s, and in 2016 a specimen from a restoration project in France also flew over the country before returning to the Alps.

[28][29] There are two records of bearded vultures from the Alps reintroduction schemes which have reached the United Kingdom, with the first sighting taking place in 2016 in Wales and the Westcountry.

The bird, nicknamed 'Vigo' by Tim Birch of the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, originated from the reintroduced population in the Alps.

[37] The bearded vulture can swallow whole or bite through brittle bones up to the size of a lamb's femur[38] and its powerful digestive system quickly dissolves even large pieces.

The bearded vulture has learned to crack bones too large to be swallowed by carrying them in flight to a height of 50–150 m (160–490 ft) above the ground and then dropping them onto rocks below, which smashes them into smaller pieces and exposes the nutritious marrow.

Less frequently, these birds have been observed trying to break bones (usually of a medium size) by hammering them with their bill directly into rocks while perched.

They prefer the limbs of sheep and other small mammals and they carry the food to the nest, unlike other vultures which feed their young by regurgitation.

To kill tortoises, bearded vultures fly with them to some height and drop them to crack open the bulky reptiles' hard shells.

[14][38] Larger animals have been known to be attacked by bearded vultures, including ibex, Capra goats, chamois, and steenbok.

[14] The territorial and breeding display between bearded vultures is often spectacular, involving the showing of talons, tumbling, and spiraling while in solo flight.

[44] The bearded vulture is one of the most endangered European bird species as over the last century its abundance and breeding range have drastically declined.

[45] It naturally occurs at low densities, with anywhere from a dozen to 500 pairs now being found in each mountain range in Eurasia where the species breeds.

[46] The declines of the bearded vulture populations have been documented throughout their range resulting from a decrease in habitat space, fatal collisions with energy infrastructure, reduced food availability, poisons left out for carnivores and direct persecution in the form of trophy hunting.

Actions that have been implemented include the mitigation of existing and proposed energy structures to prevent collision risks, the improved management of supplementary feeding sites as well to reduce the populations from being exposed to human persecution and poisoning accidents and outreach programmes that are aimed at reducing poisoning incidents.

[46] The Foundation for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture (Spanish: Fundación para la Conservación del Quebrantahuesos), established in Spain in 1995, was created in response to the national population dropping to 30 specimens by the end of the 20th century.

A second attempt was made in 1987, using a technique called "hacking", in which young individuals (from 90 to 100 days) from zoological parks would be taken from the nest and placed in a protected area in the Alps.

It was believed that if the shadow of a Homa fell on one, he would rise to sovereignty[51] and anyone shooting the bird would die in forty days.

[52] The Greek playwright Aeschylus was said to have been killed in 456 or 455 BC by a tortoise dropped by an eagle who mistook his bald head for a stone.

The ancient Greeks used ornithomancers to guide their political decisions: bearded vultures, or ossifrage, were one of the few species of birds that could yield valid signs to these soothsayers.