none of the vultures appear to be able to fly - they can glide and flap downwards from the higher areas but they can't fly upwards, so can be contained within the fence around the perimeter. I've watched a few videos of them on Youtube, and it can be clearly seen on every single bird spreading its wings that they are either fully wing-clipped or have notches taken out to unbalance them enough to prevent proper flight.
The following video is a good example because it shows a lot of the vultures with their wings open (skip through to around the 7 minute mark when the birds all start coming down to feed). You'll notice that even though some birds are coming in by air, it is just a downwards flapping or gliding and all the birds have lots of feathers missing from one wing.
I thought that I read somewhere that these birds are all rescue birds that can't be released anymore, but as it is France I would not be surpised if that is only true for some of them...
for wing-clipped birds this exhibit is far preferable to a savannah-style exhibit, because they can still glide downwards (whereas on a savannah exhibit they are on flat land so can do nothing except hop about). They can get to quite high points around the outside, allowing a long glide, which I like. The design to allow them to do this is great.
If they are rescue birds which are unreleasable due to not being able to fly properly then that's all good - it's a really innovative way to house them which isn't the usual small aviaries. However, if they are simply wing-clipped to prevent them escaping (and the video shows many which are very obviously wing-clipped) that's pretty rubbish. Having this same arena covered over with mesh or wires would allow fully-winged birds a lot of freedom to fly.
I suspect there is a mix of rescue birds and wing-clipped birds, in which case I would argue a fully-enclosed arena would be better for the birds because then the birds which can fly could be left full-winged, regardless or whether other individuals cannot fly through injuries.
