Species profile
About the palm-nut vulture
The palm-nut vulture is a genuine oddity: a bird of prey whose diet is dominated by the husk of oil palm and raffia palm fruit. It is boldly pied — white with black flight feathers and tail, with bare orange-red facial skin — and looks more like a small fish eagle than a vulture.
In Tanzania it is a bird of palm-lined rivers and lakeshores, and Nyerere National Park along the Rufiji and Mahale on Lake Tanganyika are the reliable places to find it. Juveniles are entirely brown and take three or four years to acquire adult plumage.
Life in the wild
Behavior & relationships
Behavior
Feeds by hanging from a palm bunch to tear off fruit husk. Also patrols shorelines for crabs, fish and stranded carrion.
Social life
Monogamous pairs holding a territory around a palm stand, building a large stick nest in a tall tree.
What makes it remarkable
Special features
The only raptor whose adult diet is predominantly plant material, and a bare pink-orange face unlike any other African vulture.