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Bird

Himalayan Griffon

Gyps himalayensis

हिन्दी: हिमालयी गिद्ध

IUCN: Near Threatened
Himalayan Griffon (Gyps himalayensis) photographed by Devendra Bhardwaj

Image: Devendra Bhardwaj · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0 · Uttarakhand · Resized

Scientific name
Gyps himalayensis
Hindi name
हिमालयी गिद्ध
Family
Accipitridae, order Accipitriformes
Group
Bird
Conservation status
Near Threatened

A mountain giant gliding on cold air.

  • Spot it Pale buff body with dark flight feathers; very large.
  • Home High mountains, sometimes lower in winter.
  • Food web Eats dead animals.
  • Why it matters Cleans mountain slopes of carcasses, stopping disease and returning nutrients to the soil.

Read more: Himalayan vulture on Wikipedia

Sources and credits

Records and field notes

  • RajasthanDevendra Bhardwaj has 2 verified records of this species on iNaturalist, between 2011 and 2013, in Jaisalmer and Uttarakhand.[20]

Sources

  1. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (species pages linked on each entry) (database). Global conservation status. Every species page was opened.
  2. Devendra Bhardwaj. iNaturalist observations and notes, with place and date (inaturalist.org/people/devendrabhardwaj) (field record). The observer's own dated records and notes, with places. Statements in his notes are his own and were not independently checked by KJVF.
  3. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF species data (family, order, Hindi names, IUCN category) (database). Open biodiversity data. Used for classification, Hindi common names and the IUCN category where one is given.
  4. Wikidata (Hindi labels for species) (database). Open data, used for Hindi common names.
  5. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (opening lines of each species article, CC BY-SA 4.0). The link on each entry goes to the article (reference). Not peer reviewed. Only the opening description is used, and statements about origin or medicinal use are left out.
  6. Short introductions and key points written with AI help (Google Gemini and Claude) and checked against GBIF where possible (reference). AI-assisted text for general readers. Please check important details before relying on them.

The tag before each record shows the place it was checked for.

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