A record year for the bearded vulture

With 26 fledged young, 2025 is a record year for bearded vultures in Switzerland. The first successful breeding in the canton of St. Gallen is particularly pleasing. Bearded vultures are now breeding in five cantons.

The reintroduction of bearded vultures continues to be successful and the population continues to grow. In the canton of Graubünden alone, 16 young vultures fledged this year. Valais recorded seven fledglings, while in the cantons of Bern and Ticino, as well as for the first time in St. Gallen, one young bird fledged in each canton.

New breeding areas are also constantly being added. This shows that some regions in the Swiss Alps still offer a good habitat for bearded vultures. We therefore expect that the first breeding pairs will also settle in Central Switzerland in the coming years.

In order to continue to record the current distribution and population size as accurately as possible, we hold bearded vulture observation days in the fall, as we do every year. We rely on the help of as many volunteers as possible.

The bearded vulture population is developing well. Nevertheless, we will continue the reintroduction project. This is because the low genetic diversity of the population remains a challenge, which is why further reintroductions are needed.