This Bird Is Famous For Its 'Bone Crusher' Beak

By: NDTVNewsDesk

Image: Pexels

The bearded vulture or lammergeier is the bird famous for its "bone crusher" beak.

Image: Pexels

It has a highly specialised diet that consists almost exclusively of bones and bone marrow, making it the only known vertebrate to do so.

Image: Pexels

To access the nutritious marrow, the bird employs a unique and intelligent technique.

Image: Pexels

It searches for animal skeletons, often after other scavengers have picked the carcass clean of meat.

Image: Pexels

It carries large bones, sometimes weighing nearly as much as the bird itself, high into the air (50-150 meters or more).

Image: Pexels

It drops the bones onto a favoured rocky spot (sometimes called an "ossuary") to shatter them into smaller, swallowable pieces.

Image: Pexels

It then spirals or glides down to consume the fragments. This learned skill can take young birds years to master.

Image: Pexels

This large bird of prey has an impressive wingspan of up to 3 meters (nearly 10 feet).

Image: Pexels

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