The bearded vulture’s currently preferred habitat consists of rocky and treeless mountain ridges and slopes above the tree line. Nests are located on cliffs at altitudes of 1,200–2,200 meters. In Bulgaria, such regions include Rila, Pirin, the Western and Central Balkan Mountains. These areas have the most numerous records of the species from the early and mid-20th century, before its decline and complete disappearance in the 1970s.

In the photo, you can see an adult bearded vulture in flight, photographed from below, soaring above alpine snow-covered slopes. This is likely how Rila, the Western and Central Balkans once looked — with volcanic rocks covered in snow during the winter months, where the bearded vulture would find carcasses of wild goats, and in the summer, transhumant flocks of sheep. We are working so that such a photo can once again be taken in the future from Kirilova Polyana in Rila, from Rai Hut in the Central Balkan, or near Mount Midzhur.

The bearded vulture has also nested in Vratsa Balkan and in other karst areas — the Western Rhodopes, the Fore-Balkan, parts of the Eastern Stara Planina, likely also in the Zemen Gorge and others.

Across much of the Balkan Peninsula, the bearded vulture has also been known to occur and nest at lower altitudes than the now typical 1,200–2,200 meters. In the Klisoura Gorge near Messolonghi in Greece, it has nested at 400 m above sea level; in Dadia, Greece — at 600–800 meters; in the Tikveš area of North Macedonia, the last known pair nested at 400–500 m; and in the Sinite Kamani area of Bulgaria — at 800–900 m.

Interestingly, the pairs nesting at lower elevations have also fed on terrestrial tortoises, which they break by dropping from a height onto rocks, just as they do with bones.