Long Live the King

The red-headed vulture (Sarcogyps calvus) is the bird that pulls rank at a carcass: bigger and bolder than the vultures around it, quick to see the others off a kill, which is how it earned its Hindi name, Raj Gidh, the king vulture. It’s unmistakable — deep slate-black plumage, a heavy dark bill, and a bare, folded head and neck flushed a startling red.

But its court is vanishing. In barely a decade India’s vultures collapsed, poisoned by diclofenac, a veterinary painkiller that passed from treated cattle into the birds that fed on their carcasses; the red-headed vulture is now critically endangered.

Once a common sight at every kill, it is today a rare one — and this one, holding its branch in the afternoon light, felt like a small piece of luck.