The Indian Vulture (Gyps indicus) is an Old World vulture and is closely related to the Griffon Vulture, G. fulvus. It breeds mainly on hilly crags in central and peninsular India. The birds in the northern part of its range once considered a subspecies are now considered a separate species, the Slender-billed Vulture Gyps tenuirostris. These were lumped together under the name Long-billed Vulture.
The species breeds mainly on cliffs, but is known to use trees to nest in Rajasthan. Like other vultures it is a scavenger, feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals which it finds by soaring over savannah and around human habitation. They often move in flocks.
The Long-billed Vulture is a typical vulture, with a bald head, very broad wings and short tail feathers. It is smaller and less heavily-built than the Eurasian Griffon, usually weighing between 5.5 and 6.3 kg (12–13.9 lbs) and measuring 80–103 cm (31–41 in) long and 1.96 to 2.38 m (6.4 to 7.8 ft) across the wings. It is distinguished from that species by its less buff body and wing coverts. It also lacks the whitish median covert bar shown by Griffon.
Read more about Indian Vulture: Population Declines, Captive-breeding Programmes
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“There was so much of the Indian accent resounding through his English, so much of the “bow-arrow tang” as my neighbor calls it.... It was a wild and refreshing sound, like that of the wind among the pines, or the booming of the surf on the shore.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Molière [Jean Baptiste Poquelin] (1622–1673)