Cinereous Vulture - Range and Habitat

Range and Habitat

The Cinereous Vulture is a Eurasian species. The western limits of its range are in Spain and inland Portugal, with a reintroduced population in south France. They are found discontinuously to Greece, Turkey and throughout the central Middle East. Their range continues through Pakistan and northern India to its eastern limits in central Asia, where they breed in northern China, Manchuria, Mongolia and Korea. Their range is fragemented especially throughout their European range. It is generally a permanent resident except in those parts of its range where hard winters cause limited altitudinal movement and for juveniles when they reach breeding maturity. In the eastern limits of its range, birds from the northermost reaches may migrate down to southern Korea and China. A limited migration has also been reported in the Middle East but is not common.

This vulture is a bird of hilly, mountainous areas, especially favoring dry semi-open habitats such as meadows at high altitudes over much of the range. They are always associated with undisturbed, remote areas with limited human disturbance. They forage for carcasses over various kinds of terrain, including steppe, grasslands, open woodlands, along riparian habitats or any kind of mountainous habitat. In their current European range and through the Caucasus and Middle East, Cinereous Vultures are found from 100 to 2,000 m (330 to 6,600 ft) in elevation, while in their Asian distribution, they are typically found at higher elevations. Two habitat types were found they are found to be preferred by the species in China and Tibet. Some Cinereous Vultures in these areas live in mountainous forests and shrubland from 800 to 3,800 m (2,600 to 12,500 ft), while the others preferred arid or semi-arid alpine meadows and grasslands at 3,800 to 4,500 m (12,500 to 14,800 ft) in elevation.. Juvenile and immature Cinereous Vultures may move large distances across undeveloped open-dry habitats in response to snowfall or high summer temperatures.