Projecto LIFE Habitat Lince Abutre

The Vulture Bui

Hi, I’m Bui!

I’m a black vulture cub and I live at the Mediterranean woodland, in Southeast Portugal.
The biologists that study my specie call us Aegypius monachus.

My characteristics…
I’m a bird of prey, in fact, the biggest in Europe! When my parents open their wings, they reach 3m wide, from the tip of a wing to the other! They’re huge!

My plumage is very dark, almost black – that’s why people call us black vultures! Like other vultures, I’m a scavenger bird, which means I feed on carcasses of animals that die in the field, especially sheep, goat, deer, wild boar and wild rabbit. Me and the other vultures spend most of our time soaring in the sky, and when we detect a dead animal we land and, promptly, we clean its carcass until there is almost no trace of it. If we didn’t do this kind of ‘work’, these carcasses would remain much longer in the field until disappearing, which could cause other animals that live nearby to get sick. We have a very important role in nature!

Where you can find me…
In Europe you can watch me in the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain) and in the Balkans. In Portugal you can mostly find me along the area which borders Spain between Beira Baixa and Baixo Alentejo, which is in the Southeast of Portugal. However, my specie doesn’t build nests in Baixo Alentejo for some years now…

The threats I face…
In Baixo Alentejo, like in many other places in Portugal, food is each time scarcer! Since some years ago, when some animals die in the field, with afraid that they can infect diseases to other animals, their owners have to call a ‘brigade’ to collect their carcasses and take them to a safer place. Since then, it’s been very difficult to find food in the field and we have to move to other areas, faraway, searching for food not to starve. Furthermore, good and quiet forests for us to build our nests and increase our yet small families are each time scarcer.
There are also other dangers around, like the risk of collision with power lines and electrocution or the poisoned baits that some humans leave in the field inside the carcasses we feed on.

This is why my specie is considered to be Critically Endangered in Portugal, meaning that we are in danger of disappearing forever from our fields – getting extinct!
But I’m sure that that will change soon!

LIFE Habitat Lince Abutre is helping us!

We already have new artificial nests, very robust, that we can now occupy!
And several feeding stations are being created for my specie – they’re safe places where it’ll be allowed to disposal carcasses of some animals that die in the field and where only some birds of prey like me will be permitted to use. Finally, we’ll have enough food for us all!
Soon I’ll live peacefully with my family in the woodlands of Southeast Portugal. Me and all the other animals that live in our forest, like the Iberian lynx Manchas!

Have you already met him?
We’re best friends!

Stay tuned and follow our adventures!