Description: Small vulture with unique plumage, marked contrast, especially in underparts, between overall white coloration and black flight-feathers; bare yellow face; short, wedge-shaped teil; legs greyish white, pink or pale yellow. Juvenil dark, particularly on underparts; intermediate plumages progressively lighter.
Habitat: Extensive open areas mainly in dry or arid regions. Requires rocky sites for nesting.
Food and Feeding: Oportunist; able to take very varied types of food. Mainly carrion, including all sorts of fead vertebrates, from passerine birds and small mammals to livestock and large wild preys on small animals (rabbits, chicks, fish).
Breeding: Generally breeds later in year than other Vultures, Apr-May. Nest in cliffs, occupying caves or ledges protected by overhang; 2 eggs; incubation c. 42 days, fledging c. 70-85 days.
Status and Conservation: Globally threatened, listed as "Endangered" in the IUCN Red List since 2007. CITES II. Has undergone dramatic decline in the last few decades and vanished in most of the former breeding grounds in Europe and Asia (especially India). Although the main European population is in Spain, the population trend is positive only in France.

Handbook of the Birds of the Worlds, Volume 2 - New World Vultures to Guineafowl. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, 1994, p. 125.