Neophron percnopterus

		Size: around 60 cm, with a wingspan from 1.6 to 1.7 m. Weight: 2 kg. Distinctive features: Egyptian vultures are migrant birds, returning from wintering in central Africa as early as mid-March.

Reproduction: between 1 and 3 eggs are laid per year. The young hatch in May and are fed for two and a half months. They then leave their nest for a long journey to Africa, where they stay several years. Food: sheep and cow carcasses mainly, though they will eat lizards, rodents and eggs occasionally.

Habitat: this rock-loving vulture often nests in a hole in a limestone rock face overlooking a valley, usually lower (640 to 1,500 m) than its grassy hunting grounds. In the Pyrenees: the largest Egyptian vulture population in Europe lives in Spain, venturing no further north than the Pyrenees. Along the northern slopes, the species is represented from the western Pyrenees to the east of Ariège but not found in the Aude or eastern Pyrenees. There are 41 nesting sites on the French side; the global Pyrenean population (northern and southern sides combined) is estimated at 250 couples.

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