Cinereous Vulture

The cinereous vulture is a Eurasian species, with the western limits of its range in Spain and inland Portugal, and the eastern limits in Central Asia. Their range is especially fragmented throughout Europe. The species is a partial migrant—a permanent resident in some areas, but with individuals wintering south of breeding ranges with harsh winters. Juveniles can travel thousands of kilometers until they reach maturity. The species prefers arid hilly and montane habitat, including wooded areas and semi-desert, areas above tree line, and agricultural habitats with patches of forest. Birds spend a lot of time soaring overhead in search of food.

In Kazakhstan, the cinereous vulture nests in mountainous regions that extend from the Kazgurt and Karatau mountain ranges in the southern part of the country to Kazakh Altai in the northeast. Several nesting sites are known in western Kazakhstan. The birds inhabit the western Tien Shan and western Pamir-Alay mountains in Kazakhstan as well as the mountains of Bukantau and Tamdytau in Uzbekistan.  These Сentral Asian populations presumably winter in India and Pakistan.

The breeding season extends from February until September or October. Like most other vultures, cinereous vultures are monogamous. Couples build huge nests, normally at the top of a tree or on a cliff ledge, that expand in size as they are reused each year. Parents share incubation duties, taking turns sitting on the eggs and occasionally rotating them to ensure proper temperature and that the fetus develops into a healthy bird. Eggs hatch in 50-55 days.

The nesting success of cinereous vultures is relatively high.  Approximately 90% of eggs successfully hatch and more than half of yearling birds survive to adulthood. The devoted, active parents protect the nest and feed their young in shifts via regurgitation. Nestlings grow quickly, leaving the nest when they are four months old.

The cinereous vulture faces many threats throughout its range. Chief among them is unintentional poisoning, wherein the birds die from feeding on carcasses that people have laced with poison to kill predators preying on livestock. Reduction in food availability, caused by changed agricultural practices and urbanization that decrease numbers of livestock, is another top threat. Collisions with wind turbines and power lines, electrocution on electricity infrastructure, and human disturbance are among other factors inflicting a toll on populations. These threats vary across the cinereous vulture’s ranges.

Conservation organizations, United Nations agencies, governments, and private sector actors are engaged in initiatives to protect the cinereous vulture, part of broader efforts to safeguard vulture populations in general. The Vulture Conservation Foundation has developed both a vulture multi-species action plan that aims to conserve all 15 African-Eurasian vulture species, as well as an action plan specific to the cinereous vulture to frame priorities for conservation work.  The latter’s objectives are to restore the cinereous vulture population to its original distribution range and to maintain current populations at favorable conservation status.

The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS),  a United Nations global treaty, establishes mechanisms [Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs), resolutions, task forces, and guidelines] for vulture conservation. Other international and regional conventions and regulatory documents provide the cinereous and other vultures with legal conservation status.

Central Asian conservation organizations completed several activities in 2024 to help ensure the long-term survival of the cinereous vulture and its habitats, educate stakeholders and the public, and encourage community participation in the bird’s conservation.

• Tagging of juveniles. Summer 2024 witnessed the first datalogger tagging of five juvenile cinereous vultures in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, in an effort that will provide researchers with valuable data about the birds’ feeding and nesting sites, seasonal movements, behavior, and potential threats. Ornithologists from Kazakhstan’s Biodiversity Research and Conservation Center tagged three birds in Syrdarya-Turkestan State Regional Nature Park, while representatives of the Central Asian Vultures project tagged two more vultures in Uzbekistan’s Nuratinsky Reserve. The birds will share their geolocations and other data on cellular networks as they move about and migrate.

Booklet published and distributed.  The Central Asian Vultures project published a booklet on large vultures of Central Asia (including the cinereous vulture) in summer 2024, available in Russian, Kazakh, and Uzbek. The booklet, which describes the birds’ features, appearance, distribution and threats, has been distributed among southern Kazakhstan residents, national park and reserve employees, students, among other groups.