Do you know which raptors dine differently than the rest, Friend?

Vultures play an essential role as obligate scavengers—relying almost entirely on carrion for their diet. This lifestyle has led to unique features they all share: strong stomach acid that neutralizes bacteria in decaying meat, broad wings for effortless soaring in search of carcasses, and, for most species, bald heads and necks that help them stay clean while feeding. There are two vultures, though, that stand out for their uniquely distinct diets: the Bearded Vulture and the Palm-nut Vulture.

Bearded Vulture: The Bone Crusher

The Bearded Vulture is unique not just among vultures but among all vertebrates because 70–90% of its diet consists of bone.

Impressively, these bones can be ingested whole, up to 28 cm long and 4 cm wide, without difficulty. Bones too big to swallow are carried into the air and dropped from heights up to 80 meters to break into smaller pieces. These bone-breaking sites are called “ossuaries.”

Bearded Vultures especially favor the fatty leg bones of sheep and goats. They eat both the bone and the rich marrow inside, along with some bits of meat and skin. In one study, when given the choice between meat and bone, these vultures chose bone. They have even been observed picking through owl pellets for stray bone fragments.

Palm-nut Vulture: The Fruit Eater

About 65% of an adult Palm-nut Vulture’s diet is fruit; mostly the soft outer part of palm fruits. For young birds, this can be as high as 92%.

Their short wings help them move easily among palm fronds, rather than soaring to look for carrion. They do not rely on rising warm air, so they can search for food in any weather, spending about 60% of their time looking for fruit and 40% searching for animal food.

They also eat grains and small animals such as fish, crabs, mollusks, and tadpoles. These vultures rarely gather at large carcasses with other vultures. Instead, they spend much of the day perched in palm trees or hanging below fruit, using their bills to pull fruit from the tree and their feet to tear it apart.

Images courtesy of Macaulay Library: King Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture (left to right) © Jose Pablo Molina Sibaja, Bearded Vulture © Marc Gálvez, Bearded Vulture © Kevin Hughes, Palm-nut Vulture © Michael O'Brien, Palm-nut Vulture © Lukasz Ifczok

More Raptor Resources

• All About Raptor Feet: Explore a gallery of talons across the raptor world, from eagles to owls to falcons, and learn how wildly different a talon can look depending on what a raptor hunts!
• In Defense of Turkey Vultures: Read the case for why this scavenger is vital to our ecosystem.
• Discover how conservationists and local communities are working to protect the 70% of African vulture species that are currently endangered in this All About Birds article.