Scientists do not yet know what the beard is for. A bearded vulture has a dark beard by its beak, and both male and female bearded vultures have it. Most vultures have bald heads, but a bearded vulture has feathers on its head.

Bearded vultures bathe in water that has iron in it, which dyes their chest feathers orange. Different bearded vultures are different shades of orange because they bathe for different lengths of time. Scientists disagree on why bearded vultures bathe in iron-rich puddles: it may be decoration, or the iron oxide may protect eggs from infection.

A bearded vulture has very strong acid in its stomach. The stomach acid of a bearded vulture is more caustic than lemon juice and turns hard pieces of bone into sludge. Its strong stomach acid lets it digest bones within a 24 hour period, and it swallows small bones whole.

A bearded vulture has flat feet and dull talons, which help it walk around a carcass and pick out bones. If a bone is too big to swallow, the bird carries the bone high up and drops it onto rocks.

Bearded vultures help clean up nature by eating what other animals leave behind, and vultures remove dead animals from the land quickly, which limits the spread of disease.

A bearded vulture finds food by using its eyes, and it uses the rising air along mountain slopes to help it search for the remains of dead animals.

The bearded vulture was completely gone from the Alps by the beginning of the 20th century, and people brought bearded vultures back to the Alps in 1986, starting in Austria. Before a young bearded vulture is released, scientists fit it with a tiny tracking transmitter, ID bands on its legs and a bleached pattern on its feathers.

At breeding centers, young bearded vultures are given raw meat until their stomach acid is strong and they can find food alone. Young chicks cannot digest bone, so their parents bring them fresh meat first.

As of November 2026, the bearded vulture is listed as Near Threatened, and its numbers are going down overall.

In the Alps, bearded vultures start breeding in winter, between late December and late February, and a pair of bearded vultures raises one chick in a breeding season.

A bearded vulture pair builds up to five nests on sheltered ledges or in small caves on the mountainside. Bearded vultures perform sky dances, rising to great heights and diving back down, twisting and rolling past the nesting site.

Words to know

• caustic: burning strong
• transmitter: signal sender
• talons: bird claws
• sludge: thick mush
• oxide: iron compound