Hooded Vulture

Monnikaasvoël · Necrosyrtes monachus

A small, slender vulture with a thin pointed bill made for picking up scraps the bigger vultures leave behind. Its bare face turns pink or red when it gets excited. Gentle and shy, it hangs around the edges of a feast, nibbling tiny morsels and tidying up bits of skin and bone the giants ignore.

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How to identify it

A small dark-brown vulture with a slim bill and a pinkish bare face topped by a soft 'hood' of downy feathers on the neck.

Where to see it in Kruger

Often near rest camps and picnic spots park-wide, and lingering at the fringes of carcasses in savanna and woodland.

Did you know

Its skinny beak works like tweezers, picking up scraps too small for the big bully vultures to bother with.

Often confused with

White-backed Vulture

Cape Vulture

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