Context:

• It is considered as rare sight to visualize the bird in Jharkhand, as it would not extend
  beyond Rajasthan normally

Details:

• It is usually during the winter that a distinctly dark large bird – the Cinereous vulture, with a blacked-tipped pink beak – migrates from the mountainous regions of Europe and Asia to warmer places, including India.
• While earlier records of this migratory bird have revealed that it comes to northern parts of India up to Rajasthan, bird watchers and researchers were baffled to find it in Hazaribagh in Jharkhand.
• The other three vultures Himalyan Griffon, White-rumped vulture and the Long-billed vulture were also present.

About Cinereous vulture:

• It is a large raptorial bird that is distributed through much of Eurasia.
• It is also known as the black vulture, monk vulture, or Eurasian black vulture.
• The cinereous vulture is a Eurasian species. The western limits of its range are in Spain and inland Portugal, with a reintroduced population in south France. They are found discontinuously to Greece, Turkey and throughout the central Middle East. Their range continues through Afghanistan eastwards to northern India to its eastern limits in central Asia, where they breed in northern Manchuria, Mongolia and Korea.
• IUCN status – Near Threatened.

About Himalayan Griffon vultures:

• The Himalayan vulture or Himalayan griffon vulture (Gyps himalayensis) is an OldWorld vulture in the family Accipitridae. Closely related to the European griffon vulture (G. fulvus) and once considered a subspecies of it, this species is found along the
  Himalayas and the adjoining Tibetan Plateau
• It is one of the two largest Old-World vultures and true raptors
• This is a huge vulture, and is perhaps the largest and heaviest bird found in the Himalayas
• Himalayan vultures are susceptible to toxicity induced by diclofenac, a drug whose residues in domestic animal carcasses has led to rapid declines in populations of other Gyps vultures across Asia. The Himalayan griffon vulture populations have however not shown signs of rapid decline although reductions in nesting birds have been noted in some parts of its range in Nepal.
• It has ‘Near Threatened’ status in IUCN

About White-rumped vulture:

• It is an Old-World vulture native to South and Southeast Asia.
• It has been listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List since 2000, as the
  population severely declined.
• They die of renal failure caused by diclofenac poisoning.

About Long-billed vulture/Indian vulture:

• It is an Old-World vulture native to India, Pakistan and Nepal.
• It has been listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2002, as the
  population severely declined.
• Indian vultures died of renal failure caused by diclofenac poisoning.
• It breeds mainly on hilly crags in central and peninsular India.