The bird belongs to the Accipitridae family of Falconiformes order. Its scientific name is Gypaetus barbatus (Latin), or Bearded Vuiture (English).       

It is a large-size bird of prey with a full-length of about 105 to 133 centimeters. The upper body is black with silver gray luster. The forehead and vertex are covered with light taupe eider-like feathers. The lower body is light brown. The rectrices are silver gray and dotted with black spots. The female bird is generally bigger in constitution than the male.

It likes to inhabit in the open ground, such as grassland, tundra, highland and ling wasteland, as well as staying at sea coast or in inland rocks or cliffs. Its nests, which are heaped into platforms with withes and lined with grass, hair, pelt and bones, mostly locate in grotto or the protruding part of cliffs. It frequently glides and hovers in air, feeding on saprophyte that is indigestible for other saprophagous animals, and smashing bones by casting them against the rocks.

Bearded Vuiture is a kind of resident bird, mainly distributed in western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, and Sichuan provinces.