Cinereous Vulture Aegypius monachus 禿鷲
Category I. Very rare winter visitor largely to Deep Bay area. Has declined since 1990s.
IDENTIFICATION
Jan. 1997, John and Jemi Holmes.
Extremely large and broad-winged all-dark vulture with slightly wedge-shaped tail.
Dec. 1996, Geoff Carey.
Plumage all dark sooty-brown. On adults bare skin of head and neck is bluish, while that on juvenile is pink.
VOCALISATIONS
Generally silent. No calls reported in HK.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
Most sightings were from the Deep Bay marshes and nearby hills. Single birds have also been occasionally reported from other parts of the northern New Territories, Lantau (Tai O on 2 February 1984) and HK Island (Chai Wan on 4 January 1985, an apparently wild bird, found injured, and most recently Stanley in 2015).
OCCURRENCE
From 1958/59 to 1997/1998 there were records of Cinereous Vulture in almost 50% of winter periods, though the pattern was irregular, with, for example, records in five consecutive winters from 1988/89 to 1992/93 but in only one of the subsequent five winters from 1993/94 to 1997/98. All sightings were of one or two birds, apart from three at Castle Peak on 29 December 1959, seven, including at least one juvenile, over Crest Hill on 20 December 1996 and six near Mai Po until the end of the year. The earliest and latest dates were 28 November 1992 and 20 March 1990. Since 1998, however, the only reports occurred in 2015 at Stanley. The first was discovered on 15 January and taken into care, but died the following day, while the second was seen on 18 December.
The paucity of records this century is further evidence of a decline first noted in the 1990s and presumably reflects the population decline noted in Asia (see below) and/or a response to a warming climate.
Prior to 1958, this species was first reported near Lo Wu on 3 April 1938 (Herklots 1938) and one or two were subsequently sighted at Stanley between 1942 and 1945 and at Sha Tau Kok in January 1947 (Herklots 1953). La Touche (1931-34) stated it occasionally occurred at the coast.
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET
While most reports refer to individuals in flight, often being mobbed by other raptors, birds have occasionally also been seen on the ground. One bird frequented a sandy beach near a poultry farm at Pak Nai from 10 January to 20 February 1993 and up to six gathered at the edge of a domestic duck pond near Mai Po during 20-31 December 1996, presumably attracted by duck carcasses.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Monotypic. Small European population in Iberia and southern France; Asian population occurs from areas south of the Black and Caspian Seas through the Middle East, Central Asia, northern parts of the Indian subcontinent, northwest and north China, Mongolia and southern Siberia (Meyburg et al. 2020). In China summer visitor to high altitude and grassland areas of west and north, and a winter visitor to southeast Tibet and west Yunnan (Liu and Chen 2020).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: NEAR-THREATENED. Population size 16,800 to 22,800, but numbers are decreasing in Asia.
Herklots, G. A. C. (1938). Notes and comments. Ornithology. Hong Kong Naturalist 9: 87-88.
Herklots, G. A. C. (1953). Hong Kong Birds. South China Morning Post, Hong Kong.
La Touche, J. D. D. (1931-34). Handbook of the birds of Eastern China Vol. 2. Taylor and Francis, London.
Liu, Y. and Y. H. Chen (eds) (2020). The CNG Field Guide to the Birds of China (in Chinese). Hunan Science and Technology Publication House, Changsha.
Meyburg, B.-U., D. A. Christie, G. M. Kirwan, and J. S. Marks (2020). Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.cinvul1.01
