Red Headed Vulture

[Shyamala Kumar]

Sarcogypsus Calvus,also known as the Indian Black Vulture and Pondicherry Vulture .Once found abundantly all over the Indian subcontinent it has been included in the critically endangered list during the last decade.The reason for its decline is probably mainly because of its feeding on the carcasses of animals treated with the veterinary drug diclofenac.Nikon 7100+150-600mm ISO 400 f/8 1/500s early morning at Kabini.I was greatly surprised and heartened to see it perched high on this bamboo trunk, against the forest skyline.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice to see the photo of a red-headed vulture after a long time. I guess there may be a kill nearby and the vulture is waiting for the owner of the kill to move away. Carefully watching the vulture will give indications about it. The bamboo is perhaps broken by storm. Is this a solitary bamboo or part of a clump? Did you find any lantana at the bottom of the bamboo/bamboo clump?

Opening up the shadows will be better. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Sandipan Ghosh]

That is wonderful shot of vulnerable spices.....great to watch....

[Shyamala Kumar]

Thank you Sandipan.Sabyasachi,the bamboo stump was the tallest one in the center of a dried clump which was adjacent to the track and was surrounded by the ever present lantana bushes. .The bird was perched straight 90 degrees up from our line of vision.There was just time enough for a couple of shots before it took off.Later we again sighted it far away on another stump closer to the river, perched like a monk with both its wings out stretched, facing the sun as if in prayer.I got a few shots of that pose too.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice sighting of this endangered bird. Good eye contact. Thanks for sharing.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice to see this Shymala. its an adult male. some time back at nagarahole got to see lots of vultures near 2 large male gaur kills close to each other. one of kills was almost cleaned out and the other one kept attracting these birds in large numbers, mostly white rumped vultures but included 3 Red headed vultures... tried hard to get a glimpse of that massive male tiger which had taken down the guars , but no luck. during the long waits i noticed that the Red headed vultures usually kept away from the rest of the lot and were also the first to fly off on being disturbed, but dominated the other vultures when feeding.

TFS
Roopak

[Vipin Sharma]

A rare sighting now a days , TFS nice image.