Which bird of prey is famous for dropping tortoises to break their shells?

The lammergeier is famous for dropping tortoises and other bones to break them open.

The lammergeier, also called the bearded vulture, is a large Old World vulture of mountainous regions in Europe, Asia, and Africa. It specializes in eating bones, which can make up most of its diet. Its powerful digestive system allows it to obtain nutrients from material many other scavengers cannot use.

When a bone or tortoise shell is too large to swallow, the bird carries it to a rocky slope and releases it. The impact breaks the object into smaller pieces. Favored dropping sites are known as ossuaries, and individual birds may return to them repeatedly.

The species has a distinctive dark feather “beard” beneath its bill and often appears rust-colored because of bathing in iron-rich soil. It is not the same bird as the Egyptian vulture, another tool-using scavenger that cracks eggs with stones.