Nestflix
Nestflix is footage from a live camera on a Bearded Vulture nest in the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa at an elevation of about 2000m.
https://www.youtube.com/@BVRecoveryProgramme
Streaming: There are livestream pauses due to issues beyond our control, and we will try to get back online as soon as possible. All videos and comments are analysed and recorded in the project database. Daily video chats are saved with the video and are visible on YouTube within 24 hours.
Nestflix Season 2
The 2025 breeding season has come to an end with the fledging of the chick in December. The camera was struck by lightning towards the end of December, thus abruptly ending the season’s viewing. We will wait until the birds are less active in the nest area before checking and replacing the equipment.
Nestflix Season 1 and 2 are available to watch on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BVRecoveryProgramme
We are extremely grateful to Afraceuticals, a South African based company, who funded Season 2 of Nestflix.
Nestflix Season 3
Tune in for Nestflix Season 3 in April 2026.
Information on the birds and breeding season from frequently asked questions on Nestflix is provided below:
Nest building: Large nests are prepared early in the breeding season and consist mainly of sticks lined with any soft material the adults can find, e.g. grass and wool from carcasses.
Incubation and hatching: The female will normally lay two eggs which will hatch after an incubation period of about 55 days each.
Parental care: Both adults assist with incubation and chick rearing.
Adult birds: Bearded Vultures are not sexually dimorphic (there are no obvious differences between male and female). Orange chest colours are primarily from bathing in mud rich in iron oxide.
Feeding: For the first few weeks the parents prepare small pieces of meat for the chick which include sufficient moisture from the meat and through the saliva of the adult. The adults do not regurgitate food. As the chick gets older, the adults will start feeding it small pieces of bone to swallow, increasing the size of the bones as the chick grows. Bearded Vultures are unique in that their diet consists primarily of bone which they swallow whole and digest with their strong stomach acid. They are obligate scavengers, feeding on carcasses in the surrounding nature reserves and nearby farmlands. There are also a few supplementary feeding sites nearby that are regularly provisioned.
Marking: In order to limit nest disturbance, the chick will not be marked/ringed. Patagial tags are not desirable for this species and Bearded Vulture legs are very feathered making leg rings difficult to see. The value of ringing this species is also limited because of the rugged and remote terrain and the limited number of observers that may see a flying or feeding bird or find the carcass of a marked bird.
Fledging: Anywhere between 100 and 130 days after hatching. Once the chick has fledged, it will remain near the nest for another few months before dispersing completely.
Bearded Vulture Breeding Programme: The adults will only raise one chick, meaning the second chick will either die because of aggressive behaviour from the larger chick that hatched first, or because it won’t receive food from the parents. A captive breeding programme, which currently has 26 individuals, has been established from eggs harvested in the wild between 2015-2024. Harvesting throughout the species range did not take place in 2025, however will resume in 2026.