Species
Griffon Vulture
Gyps fulvus
The reliable giant of the ridgelines
If the Bonelli's is the prize you work for, the Griffon Vulture is the spectacle you can count on. Big, broad and unhurried, griffons ride the morning air over the crags in numbers, and a clear day on the right ridge rarely disappoints.
Where & when to see it here
Year-round over the Serra de São Mamede, classically from the Fraga da Esparoeira — the Portuguese flank of the cross-border crag — as the thermals build a couple of hours after first light.
Field marks & behaviour
Huge, pale sandy-brown body with dark flight feathers and a small, pale, bare-looking head on a long neck; in soaring flight the wings are held in a shallow V, fingered primaries spread. Colonial and gregarious, a carrion-feeder that quarters vast distances on rising air — where one circles, others gather.
Why the Alto Alentejo
São Mamede holds a monitored breeding colony on its escarpments, and the border crags here are a dependable place to watch them at eye level or below — a rare thing. That a single crag carries the colony across two countries, the birds crossing a national line they cannot see, is the borderland in miniature.
Plan your visit
Walk the same ground as the griffon vulture.
The newsletter
What's flying now
A short, seasonal note from the Serra — what to listen for, what's passing through.