What to Know About Hooded Vulture in Uganda?

The Hooded Vulture in Uganda is one of the African birds in Uganda seen during Uganda birding tours. It is a critically endangered Old World vulture in the order Accipitriformes, which also includes eagles, kites, buzzards, and hawks.

It is the only member of the genus Necrosyrtes and is native to Bwindi impenetrable national park in Uganda. It is 62–72 cm long, has a wingspan of 155 to 165 cm and a body weight of 1.5 to 2.6 kg.

How Does the Hooded Vulture in Uganda Look Like?

Hooded Vulture is one of the smallest and least vigorous among the vultures of its habitat. Female is slightly larger than male.

Adults have downy white feathers on the rear neck, forming a kind of hood on the head, with white collar. Face is usually greyish, but may turn bright pink, red or even bluish when excited.

The color of the bare skin in neck and head may change when blood vessels dilate in a highly excitation or aggressiveness state.

This reaction is completely involuntary, and appears as an alarm for the other vultures. When it is frightened, its skin becomes pale or greyish white.

Hooded Vulture is entirely brown, and mainly the young, whereas in adults, white spots enhance the dark colors in places.

Bill is long and narrow, making the bird easily identifiable. In flight, its wings are shorter and broader, less pointed than in Egyptian Vulture.

You can see six “fingers” at the tip of the wings, only five in Egyptian Vulture. It has squared tail, instead pointed, and it is entirely black. Adults have a diffuse pattern through the underwing, formed by pale flight feathers’ bases.

Juvenile resembles adults, but it has dark down from crown to nape, dark crop, pinkish grey face and throat skin, and any pattern on underwings.

How Does the Hooded Vulture in Uganda Sing and Make Calls?

Adult Hooded Vulture is usually silent, but chicks peep to parents when they feed them. Hooded Vulture’s nest is built in a tree (often a Baobab tree), and it is reused year after year.

It is very well lined with fresh vegetation during all the nesting season.

How Does the Hooded Vulture in Uganda Feed?

Hooded Vulture, with its fine but vigorous bill, is able to remove flesh from bones, but it is more difficult for it to tear skin from carcasses.

It often leaves the place to largest vultures which do this work for it. Its powerful toes are adapted for running and walking, but not for catching prey.

This vulture has no choice, but to add insects and refuses recovered in the cities, in order to feed. More daring than most of other vultures, Hooded Vulture approaches human.

A common and funny behavior consists in following a plough, to take advantage of beautiful larvae and insects disturbed by the movement.

How Does the Hooded Vulture in Uganda Breed?

Courtship displays are not very spectacular, however, sometimes, either male swoops down on female, or it dances and describes circles on the ground, claws held out. They are monogamous creatures; pairs remain together for life.

How Does the Hooded Vulture in Uganda Reproduce?

Female lays only one egg and remains very attentive. Incubation lasts about 48 to 54 days, shared by both parents, but mainly by female.

She spends the most of its time sat on its egg in a careful way, and male feeds her at nest. Chick is very weak at hatching, and requires a very constant attention from both parents, much more than other vultures.

It will be dependent on them for seven months, after having got its whole plumage and performed its first flights.