Let us meet a very big bird. It is a bearded vulture, and it lives high up in the mountains.

Where else does it live? Bearded vultures live in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa.

Most vultures have bald heads. A bearded vulture has feathers on its head.

It has a dark beard by its beak. It has another name, lammergeier.

A grown-up has orange feathers, most of all on its chest.

A young bearded vulture is dark brown.

Let us look at its food. A bearded vulture eats mostly bones. It swallows small bones whole.

Some bones are too big to swallow. If a bone is too big, the vulture carries it high up. Then it drops the bone onto rocks.

A bearded vulture helps clean up nature. It eats what other animals leave behind.

It can glide for hours without flapping its wings.

Its nest is on a ledge of a rock cliff.

Words to know

• lammergeier: its other name
• glide: fly smoothly
• ledge: rock shelf
• bald: with no feathers