Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus
Sketch by Dean Nicholson of the Egyptian Vulture over-flying Willingham by Stow, May 13th, 2021
An Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus was seen flying over North Willingham, May 13th, 2021 (D. Nicholson). What was assumed to be the same individual relocated the following month to the Isles of Scilly. The photographs obtained by Dean at the time were of insufficient quality for identification, but the detailed notes and sketches he obtained were sufficient for the BBRC to accept the identification. It was later seen in the Isles of Scilly and Republic of Ireland. It was deemed to be a 5th or 6th calendar year bird, by which time they are in ‘adult type’ plumage and of the nominate race percnopterus. In March 2025, the BOURC concluded its review of this record and moved the species to Category A of the British List, and therefore the first Lincolnshire record.
| Site | First date | Last date | Count | Notes |
| Willingham by Stow | 13/05/2021 | - | 1 | First Category A record for Great Britain and Lincolnshire (see below) |
The first UK record of this globally threatened European, African and Asian vulture was of an immature shot at Kilve, Bridgwater Bay, Somerset, October 1825 and another was shot at Peldon (Essex) in September 1868; these were accepted by BOU into Category B (This category is for those birds which have been recorded in an apparent wild state at least once between 1800 and 1949). The bird seen over Willingham by Stow on May 13th, 2021 did not stay long in bright, sunny weather and soon disappeared away to the west. However, fast forward to June 14th and it or another turned up on the Scilly Isles where it was first photographed flying over Peninnis Head on St Mary's before being relocated on Tresco, where it was perched in a pine during the middle of the day.
After an extensive review by the BOURC, it was considered to be of wild origin and placed in Category A, the first in the modern era (1950 onwards). There were no markers of captivity in this bird, and as they average around £8000 to buy it was considered likely that anyone who had lost one would have advertised widely to recover it.
There is an old record of an adult Egyptian Vulture in Lincolnshire at Donna Nook, Jun 12th, 1970. It was said to be fairly tame and was considered likely to have escaped from captivity. In the present day it is held in captivity in around 30 collections in Britain and has been proved or presumed to have escaped here on several occasions historically. Most of these birds are likely to be unringed, as rings suffer from wear and build-up of excreta, but that any birds that are regularly flown are likely to be microchipped or have telemetry equipment.
It has been accepted as a vagrant well north of its range in northern France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Estonia.
Egyptian Vulture, May 13th, 2021, Willingham by Stow: first category A record for Great Britain and Lincolnshire
by Dean Nicholson
Around mid-day on 13th May 2021 I had just finished work and was in the garden when I heard Common Buzzards ‘mewing’ overhead. I instantly looked up as I had noted some decent raptor movements over the garden in the preceding days which included several Common Buzzards, 3 Red Kites, Hobby, Peregrine, as well as just missing a nearby Osprey. I noticed with my naked eye two Common Buzzards circling overhead but high above them (c160-200m) was another Common Buzzard which was thermalling in the company of an obviously bigger bird which I guessed to be a White Stork. I rushed to the kitchen to grab my bins off the table, and it took a few seconds to re-find it the larger bird due to the height it was circling at, and they had already drifted off to the west.
I noted the white body and underwing coverts contrasting strongly with black flight feathers – ‘White Stork’ I thought - but the more I looked the more I knew that it wasn’t right. The large size, obviously larger than the nearby Common Buzzard, with broader and longer wings, but there didn’t appear to be any foot, head or neck projection. I could just make out a small thin head (‘pinhead’) which was barely discernible when it banked round and was viewed from below. By now, I had dismissed the possibility of White Stork. Osprey was briefly considered but dismissed almost immediately. Which other birds had contrasting pale underwing coverts and dark flight feathers? Pale morph Booted Eagle? This species would not look obviously bigger than the nearby Common Buzzard.
I now decided to run in and get the camera from the living room to get some record shots and after some frantic scanning I re-found the two birds which were now actually higher and further to the west. It was now that Egyptian Vulture finally came into my head, although I still thought this idea somewhat ridiculous. ‘An Egyptian Vulture from the garden? really? But the more I thought and the more I looked, the more I realised that it was one. I had even noticed a dirty yellowy brown wash to some of the underparts when it banked in the sun, not plain white like I first thought.
I needed photographs, but then the camera horror show began. I’m not a photographer of any renown at all, never have been and never will be, and in the main I only ever strive for record shots with my Nikon Coolpix p1000. It comes in well for snapping open wings of gulls at the coast so I can capture moult scores and primary patterns, but a very high-flying distant raptor in wispy clouds is really not my thing, and so it proved.
Between 12:12hr and 12:14hr I took 31 shots and only one shows anything of value and that is the rusty yellow brown tones to the underparts (too blurry to reproduce here). In the end the bird was so far away that I gave up but ran to grab pen and paper from the kitchen so that I could crudely sketch and annotate what I had seen whilst it was still fresh in my memory. I then phoned Brian Hedley, whose local patch at Marton lies c4 miles to the west of me, and I told him there was an Egyptian Vulture heading his way. He spluttered that he was on a survey in the North-East and not ‘on patch’. By now I had now lost the bird anyway, but sent a text out to Graham Catley, Andy Sims and Grahame Hopwood, and later sent them the photos (as bad as they were) as well as Kevin Wilson and Nige Lound. It was a manic 3 minutes, but I felt somewhat crushed and deflated with what I had just experienced. Considering the magnitude of the sighting I felt absolutely no elation whatsoever and hoped that it would be picked up by someone else.
No more sightings followed in the coming days, and the gloom really started to set in again. Even though I was sure that I had seen an Egyptian Vulture, I did consider not submitting it at all. I hadn’t seen it well enough to see if there was any signs of captivity or to give a feather-by-feather description; indeed, I was the only observer. However, I knew without any doubt what I had seen and thought that I should submit it and leave the outcome to the impartial BBRC committee to assess! I contacted Phil Hyde, the County recorder, and told him about my submission reticence. He urged me to submit it, and also kindly contacted the Vulture Conservation Foundation to see if any birds had recently escaped from captivity, or if any vultures that they were tracking had ventured this far north, but these enquiries drew a blank.
Fast forward to June 14th and an apparently wild adult Egyptian Vulture turns up on the Scillies, was it the same bird? You would imagine so, given the rarity in Britain, but where had it been hiding for the previous 33 days? Photographs of the Scilly bird suggested paler underparts than the Willingham bird which showed more yellow-brown on the underparts. Perhaps this just be an effect of it being seen high up in a bright sunny sky as opposed to sitting on a branch in duller conditions? At the same time, there was talk suggesting that the bird had possibly arrived from the south at around the same time as a movement of Red Kites and the Willingham bird certainly coincided with a movement of Red Kites and Common Buzzards. Another theory myself and others had proposed is that the Willingham bird had newly arrived from the continent on the 13th, drifted high and fast (it was certainly covering a lot of ground with relative ease as I watched it) and settled somewhere along the west coast or even slipped into underwatched Ireland.
Why had nobody else seen the bird until June 14th? I kept thinking of the Yellow-nosed Albatross of June/July 2007 which went undetected by any birders between its release site in Dorset and the fishing lake at Scunthorpe. After all, in the end when the vulture left the Scillies nobody seemed being sure as to exactly when it departed. I could have so easily missed the bird myself given the height it was circling at. If it wasn’t for the mewing Common Buzzards that day I wouldn’t have even looked up and I wouldn’t be writing this now.
Size and structure
Obviously larger than nearby Common Buzzard, with broader wings and more fingered primaries (not unlike a White Stork), although on occasions when banking and following a flap could look slightly less ‘fingered’. Was difficult to judge but I thought the tail length looked to be about the same as wing width, possibly slightly shorter? Head protrusion looked small and insignificant… giving a ‘pinheaded’ appearance which with the odd shaped tail gave the bird a distinctive look. Wings looked in good nick from what I could make out with no obvious gaps in the flight feathers.Flight
Flight
Only seen to flap its wings 3-4 times in total observation of c3 mins, the rest of the time it just circled on flat wings. Only a very slight bend at the carpels noted, but wings were mainly straight looking. The bird moved a considerable distance as it circled on thermals, I suspect that if it had continued as it was when I was viewing it, that it could potentially have been many miles to the west within a relatively short space of time.
Plumage
Unmarked white underparts, head and tail with obvious white underwing coverts which contrasted strongly with black flight feathers. When viewed through binoculars this was very apparent but was also noticeable with naked eye which made me initially think of White Stork. Also, through my bins I noticed the bird had a yellowy brown wash to the underparts, more obvious when the bird banked in the sun than when in shade. This colouration could be seen in one photograph although the underwing pattern is not so apparent as is in shade. Never really noticed the yellow face at all but this isn’t surprising given the range I was viewing at and the head as a whole appearing so small. Never saw the upperparts at all.
(Account prepared April 2025)