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{{Short description|Species of bird}}
{{speciesbox
| name = Red-headed vulture
| image = Red-headed Vulture Adult Male Bandhavgrah National Park 16042013.jpg
| image_caption = Male in [[Bandhavgarh National Park]], [[India]]
| status = CR
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| status_ref = <ref name=IUCN>{{cite iucn |title=''Sarcogyps calvus'' |author=BirdLife International |author-link=BirdLife International |year=2021 |page=e.T22695254A205031246 |access-date=30 August 2022}}</ref>
| genus = Sarcogyps
| parent_authority = [[René Primevère Lesson|Lesson]], 1842
| species = calvus
| authority = ([[Giovanni Antonio Scopoli|Scopoli]], 1786)
| synonyms =
*''Aegypius calvus''
*''Torgos calvus''
| range_map = Sarcogyps calvus Verbreitung.png
| range_map_caption = Current distribution range of red headed vulture
}}

The '''red-headed vulture''' ('''''Sarcogyps calvus'''''), also known as the '''Asian king vulture''', '''Indian black vulture''' or '''Pondicherry vulture''',<ref>{{cite book|author=Ali, S.|year=1993|title=The Book of Indian Birds|publisher=Bombay Natural History Society|location=Bombay|isbn=978-0-19-563731-1}}</ref> is an [[Old World vulture]] mainly found in the [[Indian subcontinent]], with small disjunct populations in some parts of [[Southeast Asia]].

==Description==
It is a medium-sized vulture of {{convert|76|to|86|cm|in|abbr=on}} in length, weighing {{convert|3.5|-|6.3|kg|lb|abbr=on}} and having a [[wingspan]] of about {{convert|1.99|-|2.6|m|ft|abbr=on}}.<ref>[http://www.cambodia.panda.org/wwf_in_cambodia/endangered_species/birds/critically_endangered_vultures/ WWF- Red-headed Vulture] (2011).</ref><ref>''Raptors of the World'' by Ferguson-Lees, Christie, Franklin, Mead & Burton. Houghton Mifflin (2001), {{ISBN|0-618-12762-3}}</ref> It has a prominent naked head: deep-red to orange in the adult, paler red in the juvenile. It has a black body with pale grey band at the base of the flight feathers. The sexes differ in colour of the iris: males have a paler, whitish iris, whilst in females it is dark brown.<ref>{{cite book|first=Rishad|last=Naoroji|year=2006|title= Birds of Prey of the Indian subcontinent|pages=282–287}}</ref>
[[File:Red headed vulture.JPG|left|thumb|Red headed vulture female at [[Ranthambore National Park|Ranthambore]]]]

The red-headed vulture is very similar in appearance to its larger relative the [[Lappet-faced vulture]] in [[Africa]] and [[Arabia]], even being historically placed in the genus Torgos <ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234143512 | title=Vultures=29 September 2022|work=Researchgate}}</ref>
{{multiple image
| align =
| image1 = Red head vulture3.png
| width1 = 150
| alt1 =
| caption1 =
| image2 = Lappet-faced vulture.jpg
| width2 = 150
| alt2 =
| caption2 =

| footer = A female red-headed vulture (left) and a [[Lappet-faced vulture]] (right). Both have similar anatomical features including skull shapes and the dangling skin lappets. They are believed to be closely related
}}

==Taxonomy and systematics==
This is a species of [[Old World vulture]] found in the [[Indian subcontinent]]. It has no subspecies.

==Distribution and habitat==
This gaudy-faced [[vulture]] was historically abundant, range widely across the Indian subcontinent, and also eastwards to south-central and south-eastern Asia, extending from [[India]] to [[Singapore]]. Today the range of the red-headed vulture is localized primarily to northern India. It is usually in open country and in cultivated and semi-desert areas. It is also found in deciduous forests and foothills and river valleys. It is usually found up to an altitude of 3000m from sea level.<ref name="rapworld">{{cite book| publisher = Houghton Mifflin Harcourt| isbn = 978-0-618-12762-7| last = Ferguson-Lees| first = James|author2=David A. Christie | title = Raptors of the world| date = 2001-09-17|pages=443–444}}</ref>

==Conservation status==
{{Main article|Indian vulture crisis}}
The red-headed vulture used to be declining, but only slowly; in 2004 the species was uplisted to [[near threatened]] from [[least concern]] by the [[IUCN]]. The widespread use of the [[NSAID]] [[diclofenac]] in [[veterinary medicine]] in India has caused its population to collapse in recent years, however. Diclofenac is a compound now known to be extremely poisonous to vultures. The red-headed vulture population has essentially halved every other year since the late 1990s, and what once was a plentiful species numbering in the hundreds of thousands has come dangerously close to [[extinction]] in less than two decades. Consequently, it was uplisted to critically endangered in the 2007 [[IUCN Red List]].<ref name=IUCN/>

Several NSAIDs have been found to be harmful to scavenging birds. Diclofenac, [[carprofen]], [[flunixin]], ibuprofen and phenylbutazone were associated with mortality. [[Meloxicam]] has thus far been found to be "Vulture-Safe" and its use in veterinary treatment of livestock is being encouraged.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Cuthbert|first=Richard|title=NSAIDs and scavenging birds: potential impacts beyond Asia's critically endangered vultures|journal=Biology Letters |year=2007 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=90–93 |url=http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/3/1/91|publisher=The Royal Society|doi=10.1098/rsbl.2006.0554 |pmid=17443974 |pmc=2373805 |access-date=11 May 2011|display-authors=etal}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Milius|first=Susan|title=Bird-Safe Rx: Alternative drug won't kill India's vultures|journal=ScienceNews|date=4 February 2006|volume=169|issue=#5|pages=70|url=tp://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/7025/title/Bird-Safe_Rx_Alternative_drug_wont_kill_Indias_svultures|access-date=11 May 2011}}</ref>

The red-headed vulture has started becoming more harder to come by as it is being hunted down. Places like Cambodia have put together special programs to help critically endangered vulture species. There has been evidenced compiled that showed hunters have started “ the use of poisons in hunting practices”,<ref name=Loveridge>Loveridge, Robin. “Poisoning Causing the Decline in South-East Asia’s Largest Vulture Population.” , 8 Mar. 2019, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bird-conservation-international/article/poisoning-causing-the-decline-in-southeast-asias-largest-vulture-population </ref> which has led to the population analysis showing “that since 2010 populations of the White-rumped Vulture (''Gyps bengalensis'') and Red-headed Vulture (''Sarcogyps calvus'') have declined, while the Slender-billed Vulture (''Gyps tenuirostris'') may also have started to decline since 2013”.<ref name=Loveridge />

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commonscat|Sarcogyps calvus}}
{{Wikispecies|Sarcogyps calvus}}
*[http://www.vulture-territory.com/pondicherry.html Vulture Territory Facts and Characteristics: Pondicherry Vulture]
*[http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=3383&m=0 BirdLife Species Factsheet.]

{{Vulture}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q628068}}

[[Category:Aegypiinae|red-headed vulture]]
[[Category:Birds of South Asia]]
[[Category:Birds of Southeast Asia]]
[[Category:Critically endangered fauna of Asia]]
[[Category:Birds described in 1786|red-headed vulture]]

Red-headed vulture - Revision history

Ajay Kumar: Created a new article