The bearded vulture chick born in the wild last March in the Picos de Europa is a female, which has been baptized as Bienvenida.

The bearded vulture chick born in the wild last March in the Picos de Europa, the first since the extinction of the species in what is now the National Park, has jumped from the nest and has begun to fly. The technicians of the Foundation for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture (FCQ) have already been able to observe this week the chick in the wild once the specimen has exceeded its growth period and after remaining in the nest for 141 days.

It is a female, which has been baptized as Bienvenida in allusion to the social context in which she was born, much more favorable to the conservation and appreciation of Spanish biodiversity, than that of the mid-twentieth century, when the species ended up being extinct in this territory.

For the next four months, and as is usual in this species, Bienvenida will fly around the area of its birth and will continue to receive food support and protection from its parents, Deva and Casanova, two adult specimens that have been a couple since 2014. Deva is a 10-year-old female, of Pyrenean origin bred by the FCQ and ceded by the Government of Aragon in 2010, reintroduced in the Picos de Europa that same year within the framework of the recovery project of the species; Casanova is a male of at least 13 years old who arrived under his own power from the Pyrenees and settled in Picos in 2013.  

The bearded vulture is at the highest level of protection in the European Union, including Spain, where it is declared an ‘Endangered Species’. The Programme for the Reintroduction of the Bearded Vulture in the Picos de Europa aims to achieve the stable settlement of a population in this area, which would mean a meta-population that would favour the flow and exchange of specimens with the Pyrenean population through the Iberian-Cantabrian corridor and a guarantee for the conservation of the species in our country in the event of possible catastrophic events that could affect one of its breeding nuclei. It is, on the other hand, a clear exponent of the achievements of public-private programmes co-participated by the Administration and conservation organisations, as well as an outstanding example of network collaboration between the two centenary National Parks of our country, Ordesa and Monte Perdido, in Aragon (where the specimens released each year in Picos de Europa undergo a period of adaptation and behavioural training) and that of the Picos de Europa. co-managed by three Autonomous Communities.

At the Biodiversity Foundation we have been supporting projects for the conservation of the bearded vulture for years, and we are currently collaborating with its recovery through the Recovering Lost Territories project: “Programme of actions for the identification of new areas of bearded vulture settlement in the mountains of the centre and north of the peninsula”.