A rare and majestic bearded vulture was filmed fighting off a pair of common ravens in an epic air battle in Switzerland on Saturday 19 February.

The gypaetus barbatus, to give it its formal name, is a giant bird of 2.8m (9.1 feet) wingspan. Common ravens are formally called corvus corax.

The footage of the fight was filmed in 4x slow motion. It happened in the Valais canton of Switzerland.

This bearded vulture is nesting in this area of the Swiss Alps and chases off any intruders who come too close to his nest.

Common Ravens are often very aggressive. They don't hesitate to attack much larger birds such as eagles and vultures.

The bearded vulture on the other hand is usually not aggressive at all, as his diet consists mostly of bones from dead animals, so he doesn't attack for food like most other birds of prey do. But of course he will defend his nest and family.

These majestic birds had been entirely eradicated from the Alps over a century ago but been re-introduced with a complex multinational program by the VCF Vulture Conservation Foundation.

The scene was filmed in the early afternoon with a Canon EOS R6 camera and RF600/11 lens at 120fps over 30fps edit.

It was filmed originally in FHD1080 then crop-zoomed in edit for a close-up view and downsized to hd720.

A rare and majestic Bearded Vulture ( gypaetus barbatus ) , giant bird of 2.8m wingspan, is seen fighting off and attacking a pair of common ravens ( corvus corax ) .
filmed in 4x slow motion .
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This bearded vulture is nesting in this area of the swiss Alps and chasing off any intruders who come too close to his nest.
Common Ravens are often very aggressive, they don't hesitate to attack much larger birds such as eagles and vultures. The bearded vulture on the other hand is usually not aggressive at all as his diet consists mostly of bones from dead animals... he doesn't attack for food like most other birds of prey do... but of course he will defend his nest and family.
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filmed on saturday 19th february 2022 early afternoon
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filmed with a Canon EOS R6 and RF600/11 lens at 120fps over 30fps edit.
filmed originally in FHD1080, then cropzoomed in edit for close-up view and downsized to hd720.
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Location somewhere in Valais canton, Switzerland
(precise location undisclosed to protect the rare birding area. )
These majestic birds had been entirely erradicated from the Alps over a century ago and have luckily been re-introduced with a complex multinational program by the VCF Vulture Conservation Foundation.