Lappet-faced Vulture (Torgos tracheliotos)

Landing gear down! Note the diagnostic white down on its patiagium and leggings. This huge vulture is in its own genus although sometimes included in "Aegypius" and its specific epithet sometimes misspelled "tracheliotus."It is considered endangered by IUCN with the main threats being accidental poisoning with strychnine and carbofuran and mistaken persecution as a livestock predator. Population is on a steep decline with a total of about 8000 left in the wild. This is presumably the nominate race. Another subspecies is hanging on in remote parts of the Arabian peninsula, now extinct in Israel where I was fortunate to see them in 1988.