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Lammergeiers??? Nepal (1 Viewer)

B

bionicsherpa

aka Ken Petch
United Kingdom
Could someone confirm if these are indeed lammergeiers please?

20071028-_DSC0809.jpg


20071029-_DSC0886.jpg


20071028-_DSC0808.jpg


Many thanks

Ken
 
Hi Ken,

Sorry I'm not familiar with the vultures of Nepal but I can tell you they are not Lammergiers. I'd say you have at least 2 species there.

Neil.
 
Hi Ken
The first and third look like Eurasian Griffon and the second looks like a Himalayan Griffon. Nice shots,

Tom
 
Thanks for all your replies, I find it difficult to identify the Nepalese birds of prey from my little identification book. I photographed them near to Pisang on the Annapurna circuit, they gathered over us as we were eating lunch
 
bionicsherpa said:
Thanks for all your replies, I find it difficult to identify the Nepalese birds of prey from my little identification book. I photographed them near to Pisang on the Annapurna circuit, they gathered over us as we were eating lunch
Click to expand...

I guess whilst hovering over you they were thinking of having their lunch too :-D
 
1st & 3rd juvenile Eurasion Griffon Vultures and 2nd is adult Himalayan Griffon Vulture
ColD
 
The first and third photos show the same bird. As the outermost primary is growing, it is at least an old subadult (in at least about the fourth plumage). Most people have given an opinion about the identification of the bird, but nobody has presented any arguments. Could somebody give a summary about the separation of subadult Himalayan and Eurasian Griffon Vultures? This bird is labeled as Himalayan (it's a subadult with juvenile outer remiges), and it's fairly similar to the subject bird (actually even more tawny-couloured), but I don't always trust the identifications on the site (of course, Eurasian Griffon Vultures are also similar):
http://orientalbirdimages.org/searc...result&Bird_ID=865&Bird_Family_ID=&pagesize=1
 
The 'Grimskipp' field guide to birds of the Indian Sub-continent says of HGV "Larger than Eurasian Griffon with broader body and slightly longer tail. Wing-coverts and body pale buffish-white, contrasting strongly with dark flight feathers and tail; underparts lack pronounced streaking;". This tends to confirm that the second bird is a Himalayan Griffon, with the bird in the other photos being a Eurasian.
 
Not many flight photos of Himalayan Griffon in the gallery, would you please consider uploading one of yours?

thanks
Niels
 
StuartReeves said:
The 'Grimskipp' field guide to birds of the Indian Sub-continent says of HGV "Larger than Eurasian Griffon with broader body and slightly longer tail. Wing-coverts and body pale buffish-white, contrasting strongly with dark flight feathers and tail; underparts lack pronounced streaking;". This tends to confirm that the second bird is a Himalayan Griffon, with the bird in the other photos being a Eurasian.
Click to expand...

That description is valid only for adult birds (picture 2 in the first post), and doesn't really confirm anything regarding subadults. Juveniles and subadults look completely different than adults, for example here's a juvenile:
http://www.birdskorea.org/Images/review2007/himgriff_comp.jpg
 
CAU said:
That description is valid only for adult birds (picture 2 in the first post), and doesn't really confirm anything regarding subadults. Juveniles and subadults look completely different than adults, for example here's a juvenile:
http://www.birdskorea.org/Images/review2007/himgriff_comp.jpg
Click to expand...

I missed the 'subadult' part of your original query. The structural differences (broader body and longer tail for HGV) should still hold, although the tail length might need to be treated with caution. To my eye at least, the bird in the second of the original photos does look broader bodied than the other bird. I take your point about the bird on the OBC gallery though, and the Grimskipp guide doesn't cover anything other than juvenile or adult plumages.
 
I have several fieldguides on the India area and after looking at this link hoped that there would be some reference on subadults in them, suprisingly none !

Salim Ali's "Book of Indian Birds" does not even mention the Himalayan Griffon Gyps himalayensis !

Krys KaKazmierczak's "Fieldguide to the Birds of India" there is a brief entry on page 19 "It takes several years for a bird to become adult and intermediate plumages can be confusing, although younger immatures more closely resemble juveniles and older subadult birds are more similar to adults"
He goes on the state the feathers in the juvenile are uniformly long and pointed and in the adult,are for the most part rounded. with the difference more easily seen on the lesser and median coverts of a perched bird, and in flight the trailing edge of a juveniles wing appears serrated, but not so in adults, which is much the same as G fulvus.


I thought this would have been bumped up earlier, someone must have done some research on them, or is this the golden opportunity to go to the Himalayas to do the study ! When last in India I only got to see them at a distance if this post had been earlier I think I would have stayed on;)

ColD
Crete Birding http://www.freewebs.com/colnsue
 
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