Lammergeier

Lammergeiers, which are also called bearded vultures, are big eaglelike vultures of the Old World (family Accipitridae). These birds frequently grow to be longer than 1 meter (40 inches) and have a wingspan of around 3 meters (10 feet). From Central Asia and eastern Africa to Spain, they live in mountainous areas and eat carrion, particularly bones, which they drop from heights of up to 80 meters (260 feet) onto flat rocks below. As a result, the victim's bones are broken apart, giving the birds access to the marrow.

The Athenian playwright Aeschylus is reported to have died in Gela (on Sicily's south coast) when a lammergeier threw a tortoise on his bald head after mistaking it for a stone. Attacks on humans are either uncommon or even anecdotal. Although Aeschylus did die at Gela, experts believe that the story describing the strange cause of his death was fabricated by a later comic writer.