Percnoptère d'Égypte

Identification

The adult's plumage is white, with black flight feathers in the wings. Wild birds usually appear soiled with a rusty or brown shade to the white plumage, derived from mud or iron-rich soil. Captive specimens without access to soil have clean white plumage. It has been suggested as a case of cosmetic colouration. The bill is slender and long, and the tip of the upper mandible is hooked. The nostril is an elongated horizontal slit. The neck feathers are long and form a hackle. The wings are pointed, with the third primary being the longest; the tail is wedge shaped. The legs are pink in adults and grey in juveniles. The claws are long and straight, and the third and fourth toes are slightly webbed at the base.<p>The bill is black in the nominate subspecies but pale or yellowish in adults of the smaller Indian ginginianus. Rasmussen and Anderton (2005) suggest that this variation may need further study, particularly due to the intermediate black-tipped bill described in rubripersonatus. The facial skin is yellow and unfeathered down to the throat. The sexes are indistinguishable in plumage but breeding males have a deeper orange facial skin colour than females. Females average slightly larger and are about 10–15% heavier than males. Young birds are blackish or chocolate brown with black and white patches. The adult plumage is attained only after about five years.<p>The adult Egyptian vulture measures 47–65 centimetres (19–26 in) from the point of the beak to the extremity of the tail feathers. In the smaller N. p. ginginianus males are about 47–52 centimetres (19–20 in) long while females are 52–55.5 centimetres (20.5–21.9 in) long. The wingspan is about 2.7 times the body length. Birds from Spain weigh about 1.9 kilograms (4.2 lb) while birds of the Canary Island subspecies majorensis, representing a case of island gigantism, are heavier with an average weight of 2.4 kilograms (5.3 lb). The Egyptian vulture is one of the smallest true Old World vulture, the only smaller species appears to be the marginally lighter palm-nut vulture (which may be an outlier from other vultures). Additionally, the hooded vulture is only scarcely larger than the Egyptian species.

Taxonomie

The Egyptian vulture was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Vultur percnopterus. The genus Neophron was created by Jules-César Savigny in the first natural history volume of the Description de l'Égypte' (1809). The genus Neophron contains only a single extant species. A few prehistoric species from the Neogene period in North America placed in the genus Neophrontops (the name meaning "looks like Neophron") are believed to have been very similar to these vultures in lifestyle, but the genetic relationships are unclear. A fossil species Neophron lolis has been described from the late Miocene of Spain. The genus Neophron is considered to represent the oldest branch of the vultures which consists of separated (or polyphyletic) clades. Along with its nearest evolutionary relatives, the lammergeier (Gypaetus barbatus) and the palm-nut vulture (Gypohierax angolensis), they are sometimes placed in a separate subfamily, the Gypaetinae.<p>There are three widely recognised subspecies of the Egyptian vulture, although there is considerable gradation due to movement and intermixing of the populations. The nominate subspecies, N. p. percnopterus, with a dark grey bill, has the largest range, occurring in southern Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and north-western India. Populations breeding in the temperate zone migrate south during winter.<p>The Indian subcontinent is the range of subspecies N. p. ginginianus, the smallest of the three subspecies, which is identifiable by a pale yellow bill. The subspecies name is derived from Gingee in southern India from where the French explorer Pierre Sonnerat described it as Le Vautour de Gingi and it was given a Latin name by John Latham in his Index Ornithologicus (1790).<p>A small population that is found only in the eastern Canary Islands was found to be genetically distinct and identified as a new subspecies, N. p. majorensis in 2002. Known locally as the guirre they are genetically more distant from N. p. percnopterus, significantly greater even than N. p. ginginianus is from N. p. percnopterus. Unlike neighbouring populations in Africa and southern Europe, it is non-migratory and consistently larger in size. The subspecies name majorensis is derived from "Majorata", the ancient name for the island of Fuerteventura. The island was named by Spanish conquerors in the 15th century after the "Majos", the main native Guanche tribe there. One study in 2010 suggested that the species established on the island about 2,500 years ago when the island was first colonized by humans.<p>Nikolai Zarudny and Härms described a subspecies, rubripersonatus, from Baluchistan in 1902. This was described as having a deeper reddish orange skin on the head and a yellow-tipped dark bill. This has rarely been considered a valid subspecies but the intermediate pattern of bill colouration suggests intermixing of subspecies.<p>The genus name is derived from Greek mythology. Timandra was the mother of Neophron. Aegypius was a friend of Neophron and about the same age. It upset Neophron to know that his mother Timandra was having a love affair with Aegypius. Seeking revenge, Neophron made advances towards Aegypius' mother, Bulis. Neophron succeeded and enticed Bulis into entering the dark chamber where his mother and Aegypius were to meet soon. Neophron then distracted his mother, tricking Aegypius into entering the chamber and sleeping with his own mother Bulis. When Bulis discovered the deception she gouged out the eyes of her son Aegypius before killing herself. Aegypius prayed for revenge and Zeus, on hearing the prayer, changed Aegypius and Neophron into vultures. "Percnopterus" is derived from Greek for "black wings": "περκνός" (perknos, meaning "blue-black") and πτερόν (pteron, meaning wing).

Nom scientifique

Neophron percnopterus

Autorité

(Linnaeus, 1758)

Ordre

Accipitriformes

Famille

Accipitridés

Genre

Neophron

Répartition et habitat

Egyptian vultures are widely distributed across the Old World with their breeding range from southern Europe to northern Africa east to western and southern Asia. They are rare vagrants in Sri Lanka. They occur mainly on the dry plains and lower hills. In the Himalayas, they go up to about 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) in summer. In Armenia, breeding pairs have been found up to 2,300 meters a.s.l.<p>Most Egyptian vultures in the subtropical zone of Europe migrate south to Africa in winter. Vagrants may occur as far south as in South Africa although they bred in the Transkei region prior to 1923. They nest mainly on rocky cliffs, sometimes adopting ledges on tall buildings in cities and on large trees. Like many other large soaring migrants, they avoid making long crossings over water. Italian birds cross over through Sicily and into Tunisia making short sea crossings by passing through the islands of Marettimo and Pantelleria with rare stops on the island country of Malta. Those that migrate through the Iberian Peninsula cross into Africa over the Strait of Gibraltar while others cross further east through the Levant. In summer, some African birds fly further north into Europe and vagrants have been recorded in England, Ireland, and southern Sweden.<p>Migrating birds can sometimes cover 500 kilometres (310 mi) in a single day until they reach the southern edge of the Sahara, 3,500 to 5,500 kilometres (2,200 to 3,400 mi) from their summer home. Young birds that have not reached breeding age may overwinter in the grassland and semi-desert regions of the Sahel.

Migration

Migrateurs complets

Comportement

Mode de migration: Migrateurs complets.

Conservation

Tendance de la population: en déclin.

Tendance de la population

en déclin