A Guide to Israel’s Most Fabulous Birds

The Fellowship  |  April 9, 2021

Israel celebrated International Bird Day in April, and the U.S. will celebrate in May! Our friends at Israel21c share some of the 220 species that you’ll see in Israel:

Griffon vultures are veteran inhabitants of the Land of Israel and are even mentioned multiple times in the Bible. They are huge creatures whose wingspan can reach over 8 feet and whose diet relies on carcasses. In recent decades, their numbers have dwindled to mere dozens residing mostly in the Judean Desert. Among the reasons are poison scattered – not against the vultures themselves – by cattle farmers, the extinction of their natural habitat, hunting and power line accidents.

These birds are so rare that in August last year, volunteers from the Israel Defense Force’s Yahalom unit, fed a Griffon chick by drone for weeks after its mother was killed on power lines.