Identification

Large vulture with whitish or pale brown head, neck, and ruff; pale brown body and wing coverts, and blackish flight feathers.

The Eurasian Griffon is a large vulture, measuring 106.4–119.9 cm in length with a 232.6–275.6 cm wingspan (see Measurements); males have a mass of 6.2–10.5 kg, while females have a mass of 6.5–11.2 kg (2 Brown, L. H., E. K. Urban, and K. Newman (1982). The Birds of Africa. Volume 1. Academic Press, London, UK. Close ). It has a small head, long neck, and short tail. The head and neck are whitish or pale brown, and the flight feathers are dark in contrast with pale brownish plumage on wing coverts and body (3 Cramp, S., and K. E. L. Simmons, Editors (1980). Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume II: Hawks to Bustards. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close ).

The Eurasian Griffon is similar to other species of the genus Gyps, but is differentiated by the coloration of head, neck, ruff, back, rump, upperwing, underwing, under tail, and size. The Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus) is larger than the Eurasian Griffon, and has uniformly blackish or dark-brown coloration.

Throughout its range, the Eurasian Griffon can be mistaken for six congeneric species: four in the Eastern Palearctic, the Himalayan Griffon (Gyps himalayensis), White-rumped Vulture (Gyps bengalensis), Slender-billed Vulture (Gyps tenuirostris), and Indian Vulture (Gyps indicus); and two in the Western Palearctic, the Rüppell's Griffon (Gyps rueppelli) and White-backed Vulture (Gyps africanus).

The Eurasian Griffon and Himalayan Griffon, while quite similar, differ in a number of characters. The Eurasian Griffon is smaller with brown underwing coverts, while the Himalayan Griffon has whitish underwing coverts, resulting in a stronger contrast with the black remiges in the latter species. The ruff is downy and whitish in the adult Eurasian Griffon, and brownish with long feathers in the adult Himalayan Griffon. In the Eurasian Griffon, the back and rump are dark, but whitish in the adult Himalayan Griffon. The undertail coverts are brownish in the Eurasian Griffon and whitish in the Himalayan Griffon. The juvenile and immature Eurasian Griffon appears similar to the adult Himalayan Griffon, but still differ in the color of the undertail coverts, which are brownish in the Eurasian Griffon and whitish in the Himalayan Griffon (4 Alström, P. (1997). Field identification of Asian Gyps vultures. Oriental Bird Club Bulletin 25: 32–49. Close , 5 Robel, D., and D. G. W. Königstedt (1998). Zu den Feldkennzeichen von Gänsegeier Gyps fulvus und Schneegeier G. himalayensis. Verhandlungen der Ornithologischen Gesellschaft in Bayern 25: 282–297. Close ).

The White-rumped Vulture is smaller and blackish in comparison to the larger, brownish Eurasian Griffon. Its underwing coverts are white, with a narrow, blackish leading edge that strongly contrast with the flight feathers; the underwing coverts of the Eurasian Griffon, on the other hand, are brown with less contrast. The lower back and rump are white in White-rumped Vulture and dark in Eurasian Griffon. The Slender-billed Vulture and Indian Vulture are both smaller than the Eurasian Griffon. The head and neck of both species are also darker than that of the Eurasian Griffon; being blackish in the Slender-billed Vulture and dark gray in the Indian Vulture. The Slender-billed Vulture is darker above than the Eurasian Griffon and Indian Vulture (6 Grubh, R. B. (1978). Field identification of some Indian vultures (Gyps bengalensis, G. indicus, G. fulvus and Torgos calvus). Journal of Bombay Natural History Society 75(2): 444–449. Close , 3 Cramp, S., and K. E. L. Simmons, Editors (1980). Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume II: Hawks to Bustards. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close , 4 Alström, P. (1997). Field identification of Asian Gyps vultures. Oriental Bird Club Bulletin 25: 32–49. Close , 7 Rasmussen, P. C., W.S Clark, S. J. Parry, and J. Schmitt (2001). Field identification of “Long-billed” vultures (Indian and Slender-billed Vultures). Oriental Bird Club Bulletin 34: 24–29. Close ).

When comparing Gyps vultures of the Western Palearctic, the White-backed Vulture is the smallest species, Rüppell's Griffon is intermediate, and the Eurasian Griffon is the largest. The White-backed Vulture has short wings and a very slim body, the Rüppell's Griffon has relatively short wings and a slim body, and the Eurasian Griffon has long wings and massive body. Greater coverts and primary coverts are dull black in the White-backed Vulture, black with pale tips without a lateral fringe in the Rüppell's Griffon, and white to nearly black with pale fringe in the Eurasian Griffon. The upperwing is a plain, uniform sandy brown in the White-backed Vulture, scaled with series of black pale-tipped feathers in the Rüppell's Griffon, and plain, uniform sandy brown and dark greater coverts with pale fringe in the Eurasian Griffon. Underwing pattern in the White-backed Vulture is similar to the Eurasian Griffon, with a contrast between dark flight feathers and pale coverts. In the Rüppell's Griffon, underwing pattern is dark with little contrast between flight feathers and coverts, although the underwing coverts do have pale edges, creating a scaled appearance which contrast against the dark centers, and juveniles have a narrow pale bar across the underwing coverts, possibly causing some confusion. In the Eurasian Griffon, the neck skin is blue-grayish with blue patches, in the Rüppell's Griffon it is deep red with blue patches, and in the White-backed Vulture black with yellow patches. The juvenile Rüppell's Griffon is mostly streaked and brown, and is darker than the Eurasian Griffon. The juvenile White-backed Vulture has finely streaked plumage and duller gray greater coverts than Rüppell's Griffon (8 Rodríguez, G., and J. Elorriaga (2016). Identification of Rüppell’s Vulture and White-backed Vulture and vagrancy in the WP. Dutch Birding 38: 349–375. Close ).

In addition to Gyps vultures, it is also possible to confuse the Eurasian Griffon with the Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus), especially when observed from a distance and with low light conditions. The Cinereous Vulture is larger with broader wings. Coloration of the Cinereous Vulture—blackish in juvenile and dark brown in adult—is also darker and more uniform than in the Eurasian Griffon. In flight, the Eurasian Griffon has a more curved wing profile than the Cinereous Vulture; the Eurasian Griffon also has a slightly shorter, not clearly wedge-shaped tail, and even in poor light conditions usually still shows one or two light bands in the area of the underwing coverts (3 Cramp, S., and K. E. L. Simmons, Editors (1980). Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume II: Hawks to Bustards. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close , 9 Glutz von Blotzheim, N., K. M. Bauer, and E. Bezzel (1971). Handbuch der Vögel Mitteleuropas. Band 4. Falconiformes. Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Close ).