BEARDED VULTURE BECOMES PROVINCIAL BIRD OF OMNOGOVI

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Provincial administration of southern Omnogovi province has recently announced a decision to make the bearded vulture a provincial bird. It follows an international practice to name a bird as a national bird, where Mongolia announced Saker Falcon as a national bird. The bearded vulture (also known as the lammergeier) is a bird of prey, and the only member of the genus Gypaetus. It eats mainly carrion and lives and breeds on crags in high mountains in southern Europe, the Caucasus, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Tibet, laying one or two eggs in mid-winter that hatch at the beginning of spring. Populations are resident. In Mongolia, it mostly nested in Yol Am (Lammergeier Valley), a deep and narrow gorge in the Gurvan Saikhan Mountains of southern Mongolia.