Egyptian Vulture

 The Egyptian vulture is found in southern Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia. They typically nest on cliff ledges, crags and rocky outcroppings. In areas like India they are often found nesting on buildings and sometimes large trees. European populations migrate south into Africa after the breeding season ends. The Egyptian vulture population is in decline through out most of its range. This is most drastic in India where their population has declined by nearly 90% over the past 10 years. In Europe and the Middle East populations dropped by about 50% from 1980 to 2001 and even in Africa the populations are in a decline.

Egyptian vultures eat a wide variety of things including carrion, organic waste, insects, eggs and small invertebrates. The Egyptian vulture is small compared to many of the other predators and scavengers that live in their region. For this reason they have evolved to become a sort of specialist when it comes to scavenging. Smaller scavengers do not usually get on to a carcass until last, when there is very little meat left, so the Egyptian vulture uses its long thin beak to get meat that is left in tight places that larger predators and scavengers have a difficult time getting into. That is also why the Egyptian vulture does not have a bald head, like many other species of vultures, because they rarely need to stick their whole head into the carcass to get to their food. This is Osiris. He is a permanent education bird at the World Bird Sanctuary in St Lois Missouri. For the past five or more years, the World Bird Sanctuary has put on programs each March at the Carpenter Nature Center here in the Twin Cities. Osiris was part of the program in 2012.  

Egyptian Vulture

For the past few years the Carpenter Nature Center has hosted programs by the World Bird Sanctuary each March. The programs run through out the first weekend and are a fundraiser for the nature center. I spend most of the weekend helping out, although mostly what I do is take pictures for CNC. This year one of the more exotic birds that the World Bird Sanctuary brought up was an Egyptian vulture named Osiris. I was fortunate enough to get to hold Osiris for a minute.
The Egyptian vulture is different then the new world vultures that we see here in North America because the Egyptian vulture in an omnivore. Their primary food is carrion like other vultures. Since they are smaller then most of the predators and other scavengers in northern Africa, were they are primarily found, they are usually one of the last to eat. Fortunately their long skinny beak helps them to reach places that the larger scavengers can not get to. Besides dead animals the Egyptian vulture also will eat rotting fruits and vegetables. Their favorite food though are ostrich eggs. Ostrich eggs are large with shells that are too thick for an Egyptian vulture to break with their beak so these clever birds have been known to drop rocks on to the eggs, smashing them open to get to the tasty insides.