International Vulture Awareness Day - 6 September 2025

Vulture populations are on the decline. On the eve of International Vulture Awareness Day, the Hawk Conservancy Trust highlights the desperate need to protect these maligned birds. 

As a group, vultures are the most threatened group of birds on the planet. Of the 23 species of vultures in the world, over 70% of them have an unfavourable conservation status. With populations across the world under pressure, some species face the very real risk of extinction within our lifetimes.

Threats to vultures include deliberate and accidental poisonings, habitat loss and modification, persecution, the illegal wildlife trade and collisions with infrastructure such as wind turbines.

Vultures are incredibly important and beautiful birds, who have gotten a bad reputation over the years. They are vital to maintain healthy ecosystems - as ‘nature’s cleanup crew’ they play a key role in clearing carcasses from landscapes. Vultures are also dedicated partners and devoted parents, birds that form deep bonds and have fastidious cleaning habits.

Vultures around the world need our help. The Hawk Conservancy Trust runs numerous conservation projects overseas working to conserve these birds, which many BIAZA collections support as funding partners of the International Vulture Programme (IVP).

Projects include firefighting the poisoning crisis across Africa with the training and distribution of Poison Response Kits, tracking Egyptian Vulture Migration Routes for the first time across Central Asia to plan conservation actions, funding a breeding centre and establishing Vulture Safe Zones in Pakistan, and protecting Lappet-faced Vulture nests across Kruger National Park.

The Hawk Conservancy Trust also takes part in EEP Breeding Programmes for multiple species of threatened vultures, including Critically Endangered Hooded Vultures, African White-backed Vultures, White-headed Vultures and Cinereous Vultures. The Trust is also the EEP Coordinator for the African White-backed Vulture species and has bred more White-headed Vultures than any other centre, boosting populations of these important species in collections around Europe to safeguard their future.