Vultures of the Vercors
Four species, one sky

Four vulture species share the Vercors skyline. The griffon nests in the Provençal Drôme and patrols the ridges, the bearded vulture crosses the Highlands, the cinereous is moving north from the Cévennes, and the Egyptian vulture passes on migration. None of this was a given: in the 1970s France was down to a few dozen griffon pairs, holed up in the western Pyrenees. There are now over 1,700. From the ridges of the Vercors you can see all four silhouettes in the same sky. Telling them apart comes down to a few clues.

The four vultures of the Vercors at a glance

Reading a silhouette in flight

Three field marks are enough, in this order: relative size, belly colour, tail shape.

Size first. A vulture is two to three times the size of a common buzzard. If you are hesitating, it is probably a buzzard or a kite. The big silhouettes circling on a thermal without a wing-beat are vultures, or a golden eagle.

Belly colour next. Tawny body with dark underside and whitish head: griffon vulture. Uniformly dark, almost black: cinereous vulture. Pale diamond, wedge-shaped tail, ochre-cream underside: bearded vulture. Small, with sharp black-and-white contrast: Egyptian vulture.

The tail last, and this is the mark that helped us most. Short and square: griffon. Short and rounded: cinereous. Long and diamond-shaped: bearded vulture. Short and white: Egyptian. On early outings we all mix up the cinereous and the griffon against the light, when the belly looks uniformly dark. The tail settles it.

For more detail, the eagle or vulture page goes through each field mark at head height.

Scavengers, not killers

A vulture does not kill. It arrives when the animal is already dead, and the species then take turns on the carcass according to their anatomical specialisation. Bildstein describes this as a guild: each species exploits a different part of the carcass, which reduces direct competition.

The cinereous vulture opens fresh carcasses with its powerful beak and works on the skin and tendons. The griffon, gregarious, arrives in a group and concentrates on viscera and muscle. The bearded vulture waits for the meal to be over before carrying off the bones, which it cracks by dropping them on rocks from thirty to eighty metres up. The Egyptian vulture, smaller, finishes with what tweezers would pick: scraps, marrow, tendons. A carcass can be reduced to a clean skeleton in a few hours when the full guild is present.

The species that attacks a living animal is never the vulture. It is the golden eagle, more rarely the raven.

This succession is not anecdotal for the ecosystem. An abandoned carcass ferments, draws in rodents and opportunistic carnivores, and can become a contamination hotspot. A group of vultures clears in a few hours what would take weeks to decompose. In regions of India where the Gyps collapsed in the 1990s because of veterinary diclofenac, feral dog numbers exploded and human rabies cases with them. The stake is sanitary before it is aesthetic, and that is an angle the livestock farmers of southern Vercors understand better and better when we talk with them at the Col du Rousset.

Why they came back

It had all gone away in the early 20th century. Direct persecution, poisoning from baits aimed at predators, the rarefaction of carcasses with modern farming: France had lost its vultures everywhere except the western Pyrenees, where the Ossau nature reserve (1974) saved the last wild griffons.

The turning point came in 1981. On 15 December, five griffon pairs were released on the Causse Méjean in the Cévennes by the LPO and the Cévennes National Park. The operation worked. Eleven years later, in 1992, the cinereous vulture was reintroduced at the same site. The populations then spread to the Provençal Baronnies, and on to the Diois and Vercors through natural prospection. Vercors birds come overwhelmingly from the south, working their way up the Drôme valley, not from the northern Alps.

The bearded vulture follows its own timeline, with an Alpine reintroduction programme launched in 1986 by the Foundation for the Conservation of Vultures. Vercors individuals are wanderers from this Alpine population. The nearest breeding pairs are in the Dévoluy and the southern Vercors. A juvenile can cover several hundred kilometres in a few weeks before settling down, which makes the species observable in areas where it does not breed.

A figure that helps explain the pace of recolonisation: a pair of griffons raises a single chick per year, starting at five to six years old, and can live thirty years in the wild. Demography is slow but steady. Every carcass made available by a farmer, every placenta left out on summer pasture, is a small support for the population.

Where to see them from the Vercors

In the Vercors itself, four areas give regular results between April and October:

• Crêtes de la Molière and Sornin, in the north, for late-morning thermals;
• Grand Veymont and the Highlands, for the bearded vulture and the big griffon passages;
• Pas de l'Œille and Pas de la Ville, for ridge flyovers;
• Combe Laval, on the Royans side, for the cliffs and the western edge of the massif.

On the neighbouring side, three sites are well known and worth the detour if you are based to the south: the cirque d'Archiane in the Diois, the Col du Rousset on the southern edge of the Vercors, and the Drôme valley up to Chamaloc. These are not Vercors spots, they are nearby spots, better managed by local associations whose observation work brought the birds back here.

Binoculars help, the time of day helps more: late morning, when the thermals lift. That is what we plan for when we head out together, because arriving at the col at 9 in the morning often means making do with the wind. For specific spots and gear, see the Vercors vulture watching notes.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between an eagle and a vulture?

The golden eagle hunts and kills. The vulture is a strict scavenger. The eagle has a feathered head, powerful talons and a long tail. The vulture has a bare or downy head, weak feet that cannot carry prey, and a short tail. Full sheet: eagle or vulture.

What is the female vulture called?

There is no distinct name in French or English. Anecdote: the Ancients, Aelian and Horapollo in particular, believed all vultures were female and fertilised by the wind. That belief fed two thousand years of symbolism, picked up even by the Church Fathers to explain the virginity of Mary.

How many vultures are there in France?

Over 1,700 pairs of griffons, around 80 pairs of cinereous vultures, about fifty pairs of Egyptian vultures, and a hundred or so pairs of bearded vultures across the Alps and Pyrenees. These numbers shift every year; LPO Rapaces publishes annual reviews.

Is the bearded vulture dangerous?

No. It has the smallest beak relative to its size of any European raptor. It does not hunt and does not attack live lambs, despite the legend that long clung to it (and earned it the popular name lamb-killer). Details on the bearded vulture in the Vercors page.

Which is the world's largest vulture?

The Andean condor, 3.20 m wingspan, up to 15 kg. In Europe, it is the cinereous vulture, with a wingspan that reaches 3.1 m. In France, bearded and cinereous compete for the title depending on which individual is measured.

Do vultures attack live livestock?

It is a received idea. The cases documented by veterinary services almost always involve dying animals or placentas after lambing, which livestock farmers had long used as a natural resource for vultures. The facts, observations and protocols are documented on the Vautours en Baronnies website.

What gear do you need to watch them?

8x42 or 10x42 binoculars are enough. A spotting scope is useful only on a known fixed point. Bring a snack, a fleece for ridge wind, and patience.

Can all four species be seen on the same day?

Rarely in the Vercors. The griffon is almost certain in season, the cinereous is frequent in the south of the massif, the bearded vulture takes some luck, and the Egyptian vulture is a migration matter, especially early April and late August. Catching all four in the same place on the same day stays an event. The Baronnies and the cirque d'Archiane manage it more often than the plateau.

The vulture, long before us

The vulture predates our vocabulary quarrels by a wide margin. In pharaonic Egypt, the G14 hieroglyph, which depicts a griffon vulture, is the ideogram for the word "mother". The Egyptian vulture is the G1 sign, which notes the sound "a", first letter of the hieroglyphic alphabet. Rachamah, the Arabic name of the Egyptian vulture, shares its root with Al-Rahman, "the Merciful", first of the 99 names of God in the Qur'an. When you watch a three-metre-wingspan bird glide over a ridge, you are also watching a sign that shaped several writing systems.

For more: the vulture, from hieroglyphs to the Causses.

Watching vultures with us

Half-day, full-day or multi-day outing with a bivouac. Departures possible from Villard-de-Lans, Autrans, Méaudre, Corrençon, La Chapelle-en-Vercors or Saint-Agnan-en-Vercors. The route is adjusted to the group's pace.

Sliding rates: from 30 €/person.

Contact: 07 66 64 90 96 or contactpiedvert.com pbagnpg@cvrqireg.pbz. A gift idea too with the nature box.

All our wildlife outings in the Vercors