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Birds
White-backed vulture
White-backed vulture · Gyps africanus
The white-backed vulture circles silently above the savannahs, spotting carrion from great heights. A master of the thermal with a striking white back.
Fact file
- Size
- Wingspan up to 225 cm and weight from 4 to 7 kg
- Males and females
- Females and males hardly distinguishable by appearance
- Sounds
- Harsh hissing and growling at a carcass
- Diet
- Mainly carrion, more rarely meat scraps and offal
- Offspring
- One egg per year in a large nest on trees or rocks, both parents incubate
How to identify White-backed vulture
The white-backed vulture is a medium-sized vulture with a conspicuously pale, almost white back, black wing coverts and a cream- to grey-brown body. In flight, the strongly contrasting dark secondaries and primaries and the pale stripe across the back are particularly noticeable.
Its head and neck are bare, with fine, light grey skin, often framed by a downy ruff at the base of the neck. Its silhouette shows broad, fingered wings and a relatively short, rounded tail. Juvenile birds first have brownish plumage before developing the white on the back.
More in the app
With Wildful Stories+ you also get in the app:
- general viewing tips
- 4 places where you can see White-backed vulture
Where White-backed vulture live
Namibia
- Kwando Core Area
- Brandberg
- Buffalo Core Area
- Bwabwata Nationalpark
- Dolomite & Olifantsrus
- Erongo Gebirge
- Halali
- Hoanib
- Kalahari
- Kaokoland
- Lüderitz
- Mahango Core Area
- Mudumu Nationalpark
- Namib-Naukluft Nationalpark
- NamibRand Nature Reserve
- Namutoni
- Nkasa Rupara National Park
- Okaukuejo
- Palmwag
- Rundu
- Sossusvlei
- Spitzkoppe
- Twyfelfontein
- Waterberg Plateau
- Windhoek
Botswana
South Africa
Discover White-backed vulture on your trip.
The app shows you where and when to see wildlife along your route.
