Incredible moment vulture sits on paraglider’s lap 100 feet in air

By Jessica Hehir-Smith via SWNS

This is the incredible moment a vulture flew alongside a paraglider and even sat on his lap 100ft in the air.

Ricardo Guimarães Cunha, 30, was paragliding in the mountainous region of Pacatuba, Ceará, Brazil, when he captured the unbelievable experience.

The vulture, named Urú, was rescued at a young age by Ricardo's friend Israel Mendes, who is an environmentalist.

He planned to take some videos of the beautiful scenes when the bird began flying alongside him.

Although he had flown with him twice before, Ricardo never expected the vulture to land on him, let alone multiple times during one flight.

He explained that during previous flights, Urú had flown near them and would hang out once they'd landed so he was very used to people.

The day Urú landed on him, Ricardo noted that the bird was already waiting on the trail for him.

Ricardo, a scuba diving instructor from Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, recorded the entire interaction on his GoPro.

The videos of their joint flights have made Ricardo a viral sensation - his clips on Instagram have now amassed over 1 million views.

Ricardo said: “Flying gives you a huge feeling of freedom. It’s amazing but with company, it’s even better!

“It was a crazy flight - the conditions were crazy, even more so with a bird landing on me all the time!

“He is incredibly smart and joined me to have fun.”

These clips were filmed in April 2022.