The bearded vulture has an extraordinary trick for eating. It feeds mostly on bones - especially the marrow (the soft, fatty stuff inside). When a bone is too large to swallow, the bird picks it up in its talons, flies high into the sky, and drops it onto a rock below. The bone shatters on impact, and the vulture swoops down to eat the pieces. Scientists have found that certain vultures use the same rock 'anvils' for hundreds of years.
Unlike most vultures, the bearded vulture deliberately rubs its feathers in orange-red mud and dust. Nobody is entirely sure why - some scientists think it could be to look more impressive to other vultures, or perhaps the minerals in the mud are good for the feathers. The result is a bird that looks like it is on fire when it glides through the sunlight, wings spread wide.
In Lesotho and the surrounding Drakensberg mountains, bearded vultures nest on remote cliff ledges where nobody can disturb them. They raise only one chick at a time, and the parents look after it for a very long time before it is ready to fly. Because they are rare and slow to breed, every single nest is very precious for the survival of the species.