The Lappet-faced Vulture or Nubian Vulture (Torgos tracheliotos) is a mostly African Old World vulture belonging to the bird order Accipitriformes, which also includes eagles, kites, buzzards and hawks. It is the only member of the genus Torgos.
This species is patchily distributed through much of Africa, though it is absent from much of the central and western parts of the continent and declining elsewhere in its range.
This vulture prefers to live in dry savannah, thornbush, arid plains, deserts with scattered trees in wadis, open mountain slopes. They are usually found in undisturbed open country with a scattering of trees and apparently prefer areas with minimal grass cover. While foraging, they can wander into denser habitats and even into human habitated areas, especially if drawn to road kills. They may be found in elevation from sea-level to 14,800 ft.
The lappet-faced vulture is a huge species, ranking as the longest and largest winged vulture in its range behind the closely related cinereous vulture, although some co-occurring Gyps vultures tend to be heavier on average, especially the Cape vulture and Eurasian griffon. This species measures around 37–45 inches in body length, with a wingspan of 8.2–9.5 ft. The bill, at up to 3.9 in long and 2.0 in deep, ranks as one of the largest of any accipitrid.
Overall, the lappet-faced vulture is blackish above with a strongly contrasting white thigh feathers. The black feathers on the back of African vultures are lined with brown, while Arabian birds are dark brown rather than black above. The underside can range from pure white to buff-brown. Like many vultures, it has a bald head. The head coloration can range from reddish in southern Africa to dull pink in more northern Africa to pink on the back of the head and gray on the front in the Arabian Peninsula. The combination of the colorful head and fleshy folds on the side of it are distinctive. Lappet means fold. The bald head of the lappet-faced vulture is advantageous, because a feathered head would become spattered with blood and other fluids, and thus be difficult to keep clean.
The bill is grey at the upper part of the mandible and white on the rest and tip of the bill. This easily distinguished it from the all black bill of the White-backed Vulture.
The lappet-faced vulture is a scavenging bird, feeding mostly from animal carcasses, which it finds by sight or by watching other vultures. More so than many other African vultures, they often find carrion on their own and start tearing through the skin. They are the most powerful and aggressive of the African vultures, and other vultures will usually cede a carcass to the lappet-faced vulture if it decides to assert itself. This is often beneficial to the less powerful vultures because the Lappet-face can tear through the tough hides and knotty muscles of large mammals that the others cannot penetrate, although hyenas are even more efficient in this regard (if more voracious eaters). However, lappet-faced vultures frequently hang around the edges of the throngs at large carcasses, waiting until the other vultures are done, to feed on remnant skin, tendons and other coarse tissues that the others will not eat. Big game animals, are preferred as carrion, since they provide the most subsistence at a sitting.
Lappet-faced vultures are generally solitary birds. They do not nest in cohesive colonies as do many smaller vultures, with one tree or area usually only having 1 to 2 nests in it. The huge nest, a pile of neatly formed sticks, measures 47–87 in across and 12–28 in deep.