Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A large vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) found in mountainous regions of southern Europe, Asia, and Africa, having stiff feathers that extend below the beak to form a beard and, unlike other vultures, a feathered head.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A very large diurnal bird of prey, the so-called bearded vulture or griffin of the Alps, Gypaëtus barbatus, of the family Falconidæ, or placed in a separate family Gypaëtidæ (which see).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A long-winged
vulture ,Gypaetus barbatus , found in southern Europe, Africa and India.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the largest Eurasian bird of prey; having black feathers hanging around the bill
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Aeschylus was reputedly killed by a tortoise that a lammergeier had dropped on his head; the thought made me draw my head into my shoulder.
A Year on the Wing TIM DEE 2009
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Although 179 highland bird species have been recorded for the mountain, species recorded in the upper zones are few in number, although they include occasional lammergeier Gypaetus barbatus, mainly on the Shira ridge, hill chat Cercomela sordida, Hunter's cisticola Cisticola hunteri, and scarlet-tufted malachite sunbird Nectarinia johnstoni.
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A very highly endangered raptor is the lammergeier (Gypaetus barbatus), of which some forty pairs are still found in the Pyrenees.
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There are several other high-elevation specialists, such as the Himalayan snowcock (Tetraogallus himalayensis), Tibetan partridge (Perdix hodgsoniae), snow partridge (Lerwa lerwa), Satyr tragopan (Tragopan satyra), lammergeier, and the Himalayan griffon, that also need conservation attention.
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Many species of avifauna are found in this ecoregion including such endandered species as the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), and lammergeier (Gypaetus barbatus), restricted species such as the Caucasian black grouse (Tetrao mlokosiewiczi), and Caucasian snowcock (Tetraogallus caucasicus).
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None are endemic, but there are several characteristic Himalayan species such as the lammergeier, golden eagle, Himalayan griffon, snow partridge (Lerwa lerwa), Tibetan snowcock (Tetraogallus tibetanus), and Himalayan snowcock (Tetraogallus himalayensis), which should be focal species for conservation efforts.
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There are 25 species of raptors including lammergeier Gypaetus barbatus and four other vultures.
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The region was famed in the 1970s for its raptor population, with four vulture species, lammergeier Gypaetus barbatus, black Aegypius monachus, Griffon Gyps fulvus and Egyptian Neophron peranopterus; four eagle species, golden Aquila chrysaetos, short-toed Circaetus gallicus, booted Hieraeetus pennatus and Bonelli's Hieraeetus fasciatus and breeding lanner falcons Falco biarmicus.
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The ecoregion also contains the last stronghold of the lammergeier (Gypaetus barbatus) in southern Africa.
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However, the snow leopard is not the lone predator here, for the ecoregion harbors the Tibetan wolf (Canis lupus) and large avian predators such as the lammergeier (Gypaetus barbatus) and golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), which soar high above the mountain peaks searching for colonial marmots (Marmota himalayana).
trivet commented on the word lammergeier
One bad-ass vulture!
From wikipedia: "It usually disdains the rotting meat, however, and lives on a diet that is 90% bone. It will drop large bones from a height to crack them to get smaller pieces. Its old name of Ossifrage (or Bone Crusher) relates to this habit. Live tortoises are also dropped in similar fashion to crack them open...According to legend, the Greek playwright Aeschylus was killed when a tortoise was dropped on his bald head by a Lammergeier."
March 6, 2007
ruzuzu commented on the word lammergeier
See the examples on phene.
October 18, 2017