Nestflix BeardedVulture 12 December-4

Update-
Avari is spending a lot of time stretching and flapping his/her wings, and standing on the edge of the nest looking intently at the valley below. Fledging should take place within the next 10 days.

Avari discovered the lower ledge of the nest on 5 Dec, and is making frequent visits to it. This is similar behaviour to Hope last season, although we viewed the nest from the bottom ledge after the camera was knocked.

Hope fledged on 13 Dec 2024 at 18 weeks. Avari is now almost 17 weeks old.

The camera will be switched on at daybreak over the next couple of weeks in the hope of catching Avari's maiden flight . Please keep posting your observations and time stamps.

Chick Naming Competition- Our team are proud to announce our chick's new name - AVARI - Sky, air, unlimited, bearer of wisdom- submitted by AndromedaMS. Congratulations. Second place went to Paballo submitted by thembasechoala, and third place to Talos submitted by edwardcicco7406. Thank you to everyone who submitted names for the competition. Our judges had a difficult time choosing the winner.

Nestflix Season 2:
Adult birds- Bearded Vultures (BV) are not sexually dimorphic (there are no obvious differences between male and female). Based on this pair’s behaviour, we have identified that the female has more black above her beak than the male.
Incubation and hatching- The female laid two eggs on 17 and 23 June 2025 respectively. After an incubation period of about 55 days each, the first egg was expected to hatch around 10 August, however, this did not happen. The second egg hatched on 17 August. The unhatched egg remained in the nest and was eventually brazenly eaten by a White-Necked Raven on 20 October while the chick was alone on the nest. Our chick defended the nest very bravely.
Fledging- Anywhere between 100 and 130 days after hatching. We expect this chick to fledge around mid-December. Once the chick has fledged, it will remain near the nest for another few months before dispersing completely.
Nestflix- is footage from a camera on a BV nest in the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa at an elevation of about 2000m. This is the 2nd season we have watched this adult pair raise a chick.
Camera installation- A video showing the camera installation in Season 1 is available at www.birdontheedge.org, where you can also get an idea of the panoramic view from the nest.

We are extremely grateful to Afraceuticals, a South African based company, who are funding Season 2 of Nestflix.
For more information on the the species, habits, the breeding programme, and to connect with us, visit the project website at: www.projectvulture.org.za
or email us at: [email protected]. You can also watch videos on this channel that summarise the BV Recovery Programme -    / @bvrecoveryprogramme  

Thank you for your interest and support.