The hooded vulture is a small, scruffy-looking Old World vulture found across sub-Saharan Africa. The only species in its genus, Necrosyrtes monachus has dark brown plumage, a long thin bill and bare skin on its crown, face and foreneck, typically light red in colour, with a distinctive downy covering on the nape.
The species scavenges on carcasses of both wild and domestic animals. Once widespread from West to East and southern Africa, populations have collapsed in many areas — Dakar, Senegal has lost more than 85 per cent of its hooded vultures in the past 50 years. Poisoning, hunting, habitat loss and collisions with power lines have driven the decline. The International Union for Conservation of Nature listed the species as critically endangered in 2022. Strongholds remain in parts of Casamance, The Gambia — which now holds the highest regional density — and Guinea-Bissau, but the species faces an uncertain future across most of its former range.
