UBPRC – Ukrainian Birds of Prey Research Centre

First record of the Egyptian Vulture in Cherkasy region

The Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus) – is a rare accidental species of Ukrainian fauna (Kostin, 2004), entered in the Red Data Book of Ukraine in a ‘vanishing’ (Beskaravainy, Klestov, 2009). A majority of accidental visits of this bird were registered in southern and south-western regions (Knysh et al., 2005). However, this vulture was also recorded in Dnipropetrovsk (Ponomarenko, 2001), Sumy (Knysh et al., 2005) and Donetsk regions (Burakov, Vetrov, 2010).

26.05.2012 in Zolotonosha City (Cherkasy region) over houses of individual building plot at a small altitude (approx. 20 m) an adult Egyptian vulture was making circles haunted by two Rooks. Having made several circles and gained altitude the raptor flew to the south. Several photos of the bird were unfortunately made from a big distance that is why they are not of good quality. However, they allow to see unmistakably a typical silhouette and coloration underneath.

The described accidental visit of the Egyptian Vulture is the first observation of the species in Cherkasy region.

N.N.Borisenko, Kaniv Natural Reserve

Beskaravainy M.M., Klestov М. L., Kostin S. Yu., Osipova M. O., Tsvelykh O. M. Egyptian Vulture// Red Data Book of Ukraine. Animal world / Ed. by. I. A. Akimov. – Kyiv: Globalkonsalting, 2009. – P. 433. [in Ukrainian]

Burakov G.K., Vetrov V.V. About a record of the Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus) in Donetsk region // Birds of Seversky Donets basin: Iss. 11: Proc. of 15 scient. conf.of Working Group for Birds of Seversky Donets Basin dedicated to memory of I.A.Krivitsky (16–18 October 2009). – Donetsk, 2010. – P. 271. [in Russian]

Knysh N.P., Bugaev I.A., Parkhomenko V.V., Kurash I.I. Accidental visits of the Egyptian Vulture to the north-east of Ukraine // Berkut. – 2005. – Vol. 14, Iss. 2. – P. 270-272. [in Russian]

Kostin S.Yu. History and perspectives of studies of necrophage birds of Ukraine // Zapovdina sprava v Ukrayini – 2004. – Vol. 10, Iss. 1–2. – P. 40–43. [in Russian]

Ponomarenko A.L. About accidental visit of the Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus) into the territory of Dnipropetrovsk region// Vestnik zoologii. – 2001. – Vol. 35, No 5. – P. 96. [in Russian]