First cinereous vulture chicks hatch in the Bulgarian Rhodopes in over 30 years

Rewilding Europe reports that cinereous vulture chicks have hatched there for the first time in more than three decades — a proper wing-flapping, nest-rattling moment for one of Europe’s largest scavengers. For anyone who tracks wildlife recovery, this is the good kind of field news: not a vague promise, but eggs, nests, parents, and chicks.

The Rhodopes get their vultures back on the breeding ledger

The headline number is wonderfully concrete: monitoring teams recorded eight pairs of cinereous vultures in the Rhodope Mountains rewilding landscape, and four pairs began incubation. Five chicks successfully hatched.

That matters because cinereous vulture reintroduction in Bulgaria’s Rhodope Mountains only began in 2023, after preparatory work started in 2022. Since then, 40 birds have been released, including seven more in 2025. In conservation terms, that is not exactly geological time. It is more like nature kicking the door open while everyone is still unlacing their muddy boots.

Seven of the eight recorded pairs settled in artificial nests built to encourage the birds to stay. That detail is easy to skim past, but it is the nuts-and-bolts bit of recovery work: not just releasing birds and hoping for the best, but making the landscape more usable for them. The result is the first confirmed breeding success for the species in the Bulgarian Rhodopes in over 30 years.

Why this is more than a cute-chick story

Cinereous vultures are not background scenery. They are huge scavengers with an ecological job to do, and the Rhodopes recovery effort has treated them that way. Rewilding Europe describes the success as the product of years of work, including anti-poisoning efforts, community engagement, monitoring, and increasing the availability of wild carcasses.

That last phrase may not sound glamorous, but welcome to the blunt, brilliant machinery of a living ecosystem. Vultures need functioning landscapes where death does not get tidied out of existence before nature can use it. Rewilding Europe frames this through its “Circle of Life” approach: vultures thrive when natural processes — life, death, renewal, the whole messy buffet — can claw their way back.

There is also a bigger population picture here. The eight pairs in the Rhodope Mountains rewilding landscape represent around 25% of Bulgaria’s total cinereous vulture population, with the rest found in the Balkan Mountains to the north. Some pairs in the Rhodopes now include birds from across the border in Greece, an early sign that this may not remain a neat, fenced-in conservation success story, but could become a more naturally connected recovery across the mountain range.

The hard part starts after the cheering

The programme is being led by the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, the Rewilding Rhodopes team, and Spanish NGO GREFA, as part of the wider EU-funded LIFE Rhodope Vulture initiative. That broader effort brings together conservation organisations and public authorities working to restore vulture populations and strengthen conditions for scavengers across the Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria and Greece.

Rewilding Europe’s executive director, Frans Schepers, called the hatchings proof that the re-established population has begun “the long road to recovery.” Dobromir Dobrev, a vulture expert with the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, put it even more plainly: after many years of preparation, “now the real hard work begins.”

That is the right note. Five chicks do not mean the job is done; they mean the system is responding. For readers who want to follow this without getting lost in conservation alphabet soup, watch the next few breeding seasons: whether more pairs settle, whether artificial nests keep helping, whether cross-border movement with Greece strengthens, and whether the anti-poisoning and food-availability work keeps holding the line.

Still, let’s allow ourselves a grin. After more than 30 years, the Bulgarian Rhodopes are hearing the scratchy, hungry evidence of recovery from cinereous vulture nests again. Nature, when given half a chance and a decent landing platform, can be gloriously stubborn.