The final stages of each year’s breeding season mark the beginning of another important phase: the “tagging season”. This year, field teams in Portugal visited the Cinereous vulture breeding colonies of Douro Internacional, Tejo Internacional, Herdade da Contenda (spanning both the Portuguese and Spanish sides of the border), and Vidigueira/Portel. The 13 birds newly tagged in 2026 build on the 43 chicks tagged between 2023 and 2025, bringing the total to 56 chicks monitored under the project and further surpassing one of LIFE Aegypius Return's key milestones.
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Cinereous vulture chick (Aegypius monachus) capture. © Miguel Pires / @pires_gallery
The logistics behind it
All the fieldwork involved in monitoring, tagging (fitting a GPS/GSM transmitter), ringing, and sampling young vultures requires far more preparation than the eye can see. Beyond the multidisciplinary teams involved, including colony monitors, licensed ringers and taggers, veterinarians, biologists, and climbers, there is a significant amount of planning and coordination taking place behind the scenes.
In the months leading up to the tagging season, local teams spend countless hours locating breeding pairs, finding active nests, and keeping track of chick development. This work allows the estimation of the age of each chick, the planning of field work, and, later, the assessment of breeding success. Cinereous vulture chicks are ideally tagged when they are between 80 and 90 days old, by which time they are large enough to be safely fitted with a GPS/GSM transmitter.
This 2026 season was marked by particularly challenging conditions, including early heatwaves that affected mainland Portugal during July. The continuous monitoring of breeding colonies was especially important, helping teams choose the best moments to access nests, keep disturbance to a minimum, and ensure the safety and wellbeing of both chicks and adults.
Where does all this information go?
This hands-on fieldwork, and the valuable information collected through it, has played an important role in the success of LIFE Aegypius Return over the years. By fitting GPS/GSM transmitters to vulture chicks, the project team can follow their adventures during the first years of their lives. This helps us understand where they travel, where they find food, where they rest and roost, identify chicks in danger, and many other aspects of their behavior.
Every movement recorded adds another piece to the puzzle, giving the project a better understanding of how young vultures explore the landscape and interact with other colonies.
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Fitting a GPS/GSM transmitter on a Cinereous vulture chick (Aegypius monachus). © Miguel Pires / @pires_gallery
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Cinereous vulture chick (Aegypius monachus) returned to its nest after receiving a GPS/GSM transmitter. © Palombar
However, this information is not only valuable for understanding the species. It also provides practical tools for addressing current broader conservation challenges, helping to guide and adjust conservation strategies and management decisions at a national level.
One of the latest practical examples of how this monitoring work supports conservation is its contribution to the assessment of renewable energy projects in Portugal, one of the key challenges addressed by LIFE Aegypius Return in 2026. By tracking vultures with GPS transmitters, the project could identify the areas most important for the species. This information has been used to develop scientifically-based technical opinions on renewable energy projects, helping to minimize potential impacts on vultures and ensuring that renewable energy development and biodiversity conservation can progress hand in hand.
More than just movement
This hands-on fieldwork also gives the project a unique opportunity to learn more about the Cinereous vulture at the population level. While chicks are carefully brought down from their nests to be fitted with the GPS transmitters, the team takes the opportunity to collect a range of biological samples that can be used in future research.
During the LIFE Aegypius Return project, a sample collection protocol was developed in collaboration with researchers and institutions from different fields. This has opened the door to several important research lines focused on the health and conservation of the species. Samples such as blood, feathers, and swabs are collected and sent to specialized research centers, where they help answer a wide range of questions about Cinereous vultures. Scientific teams have been studying contaminants present in the population, the genetic origins of Portuguese birds, and establishing reference values for blood and biochemistry parameters. Other studies focus on the bacteria vultures carry, as well as the internal and external parasites found within the colonies.
Biological sample collection on a Cinereous vulture chick (Aegypius monachus). © Paulo Monteiro (SPEA)
Together, these studies provide valuable insights into the Portuguese population’s background and overall health, helping us better understand its needs and support its conservation.
All vulture chicks are also fitted with a metal ring and a PVC coloured ring on their legs. These rings allow each bird to be individually identified throughout its life, helping us trace its path. Whenever a ringed bird is spotted, whether by birdwatchers, camera traps, or at supplementary feeding stations, valuable information can be retraced about its movements, including the place where it was born.
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Ringing with a PVC coloured ring. © Miguel Pires / @pires_gallery
The People behind the success
None of this would be possible without the dedication of the project's partners and collaborators, who work both in the field and behind the scenes. As LIFE Aegypius Return moves steadily towards its final year of implementation, the large number of people involved in actions like this shows the shared commitment to ensuring a promising future for the Cinereous vulture.
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Project partners and collaborators during the tagging campaign in Tejo Internacional (left) and Vidigueira/Portel (right). © VCF
The 2026 tagging season was made possible thanks to the support, and involvement of the following:
Portugal: Liga para a Protecção da Natureza (LPN); Herdade da Contenda; Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR); ICNF - Direção Regional de Conservação da Natureza e Florestas do Alentejo; Carlos Pacheco; Timóteo Mendes; José Figueira; Maria Rossas, Carlos Cruz, Nuno Calça (CARAS - Centro de Acolhimento e Recuperação de Animais Silvestres, Évora); Junta de Freguesia de Santo Aleixo da Restauração; Vulture Conservation Foundation (VCF).
Sierra Pelada, Spain: Liga para a Protecção da Natureza (LPN); Junta de Andalucía; Carlos Pacheco; Timóteo Mendes; Maria Rossas; Vulture Conservation Foundation (VCF).
About the project LIFE Aegypius Return
The LIFE Aegypius Return project is co-financed by the European Union's LIFE programme. Its success depends on the involvement of all the relevant stakeholders and the collaboration of the partners: the Vulture Conservation Foundation (VCF), the coordinating beneficiary, and the local partners Palombar - Conservation of Nature and Rural Heritage, Herdade da Contenda, the Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds, the League for the Protection of Nature, the Transhumance and Nature Association, the Nature and Humanity Foundation, the National Republican Guard and the National Association of Rural Owners of Game Management and Biodiversity.
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