Bearded vulture chick hatched in Ticino

For the first time, a breeding pair of bearded vultures has been recorded in Ticino.

This is reported by Ficedula, the bird conservation organisation of Italian-speaking Switzerland. The breeding pair was discovered at the beginning of December. Thanks to careful monitoring, it has been confirmed that a chick hatched a few weeks ago.

Due to hunting, bearded vultures had completely disappeared from the Alps. In Ticino, the last bird, a young female, was caught in a trap and killed in 1869.

Thanks to a reintroduction project that began in the 1980s, this magnificent vulture started nesting in the Alps again about twenty years ago.

Since 2017, Ficedula has been coordinating, in collaboration with the Pro Gipeto Foundation, the annual bird count in Ticino, which is carried out simultaneously across the entire Alpine arc in October. In recent years, over 100 volunteers from across the Sopraceneri have taken part in this activity. As hoped, through teamwork, the first nest on Ticino soil was finally discovered at the beginning of October! The bearded vulture pair completed the construction of the nest, which is located at an inaccessible spot sheltered from snow. The interior of the nest is completely lined with sheep's wool; the bearded vulture was in fact also called the «vulture of the lambs» because it had the habit of using the wool of dead sheep to line its nest. The bearded vulture is in reality not a predator, but feeds exclusively on carrion and bones. Egg-laying frequently occurs during the first heavy snowfall.

Hope for the summer

It is now important that the adult birds can raise the young bird undisturbed. To protect the disturbance-sensitive bearded vultures, no further details about the location of the nest will be disclosed. There is still a long way to go before the young bird takes flight for the first time. We hope to be able to report on the first successful Ticino breeding in more than 150 years this summer.

Now we must wait patiently, and if all goes well, the “small” bearded vulture will take flight in late spring 2021.