Scientific name: Aegypius tracheliotos
Overall, the lappet-faced vulture is blackish above with a strongly contrasting white thigh feathers. The black feathers on the back of African vultures are lined with brown. The underside can range from pure white to buff-brown. Like many vultures, it has a bald head. The head coloration can range from reddish in southern Africa to dull pink in more northern Africa to pink on the back of the head and gray on the front in the Arabian Peninsula.The combination of the colorful head and fleshy folds on the side of it are distinctive.
In southern Africa it is uncommon in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, small areas of Mozambique and northern and eastern South Africa. It generally prefers arid and semi-arid open woodland, especially with Acacia, Shepherds-tree (Boscia albitrunca), Purple-pod cluster-leaf (Terminalia prunioides) and Mopane (Colosphermum mopane).
It is mainly a scavenger, focusing on the skin, tendons and ligaments of carcasses that other birds struggle to handle. It is the largest and thus the dominant vulture of southern Africa, sometimes charging at other vultures. The carcasses it feeds on vary in size from the Vervet monkey (Cercopithecus aethiops) to Impala (Aepyceros melampus) and African elephant (Loxodonta africana).
