SEO / BirdLife has chosen the black vulture ( Aegypius monachus ) as the bird of the year 2010 to highlight the threats to this and other scavenger raptor species.
The majestic black vulture is the largest bird of prey in Spain , reaching up to 3 meters in wingspan. It lives in colonies , and it is common to observe interactions in carrion with griffon vultures, Egyptian vultures, kites and corvids and, on rare occasions, with bearded vultures. When, circling at high altitude, they discover a dead animal, they dive with their wings tucked up and their legs dangling, making a buzzing noise.
In the 1970s the black vulture became a very rare and threatened species, with less than 200 breeding pairs. Since then its population has multiplied by ten, reaching more than 2,000 pairs today . Despite these encouraging data, some threats, such as poison, continue to cause too many deaths, and others, such as the reduction of their food sources, seem to be having a greater impact in recent years.
Poisoned baits are your biggest threat
Most of the European population of the black vulture lives in Spain , where its nesting area is limited to the southwest quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula and to the north of the island of Mallorca. Possibly the greatest cause of mortality of the black vulture is the illegal use of poisoned baits used on game farms or livestock. About 500 poisoned black vultures have been found between 1996 and 2001, but since only a small percentage of the birds that die from poison are located, the figure must be much higher.
For nearly twenty years the bird chosen by SEO / BirdLife has symbolized some of the most significant threats to our avifauna. The European cloth, the ricoti lark, the bustard, the imperial eagle or the grouse have been some of the most outstanding. Its objective year after year has been to draw attention to the delicate situation in which each of these species and their habitats find themselves.
