Distinguishing features
The White-rumped Vulture is a typical, medium-sized vulture, with an unfeathered head and neck, very broad wings, and short tail feathers. It is much smaller than the Eurasian Griffon. It has a white neck ruff. The adult's whitish back, rump, and underwing coverts contrast with the otherwise dark plumage. The body is black and the secondaries are silvery grey. The head is tinged in pink and bill is silvery with dark ceres. The nostril openings are slit-like. Juveniles are largely dark and take about four or five years to acquire the adult plumage. In flight, the adults show a dark leading edge of the wing and has a white wing-lining on the underside. The undertail coverts are black. (Wikipedia)
Size
- Up to 93 cm (Length of specimen)
Wingspan
- Up to 260 cm
Synonyms
Distribution
Distribution and habitat preferences
The species was present in large numbers, in Southern and Southeastern Asia until the 1990s and declined rapidly in numbers since; up to 99.9% between 1992 and 2007. (Wikipedia)
Diet
Like other vultures it is a scavenger, feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals which it finds by soaring high in thermals and spotting other scavengers. (Wikipedia)
