Over 80% of the bearded vulture’s diet consists of bones. The most preferred are the limbs of sheep, goats (both wild and domestic), and ibex. When bones are up to 25–30 cm in length, the bearded vulture swallows them whole (as shown in the attached photo), and they are digested by its stomach acids. Larger bones are broken by lifting them into the air and dropping them from a height onto rocky surfaces. The bird often uses its feet to carry bones and other prey (as shown in the attached photo in flight), which distinguishes it from the other two large vulture species found in Bulgaria — the griffon vulture and the cinereous vulture. Contrary to popular belief, bones are a high-calorie food.

By feeding primarily on bones and meat from dead animals, the bearded vulture is vulnerable to poisoning, because sometimes the carcasses it finds for food have been deliberately laced with poison (up to the mid-20th century, it was official state policy to exterminate predators), or they have been secondarily poisoned after consuming a bait. Poisons placed for predators in the past are the main reason for the disappearance of the species from Bulgaria, the Balkan Peninsula, and almost all of Europe. The species has survived only in places where predators either naturally do not occur or were exterminated before the widespread use of poison as a method for predator control. Today, this practice is prohibited and severely punishable.