Preliminary identification by Yang Xiaojun, a researcher at the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, confirmed that the bird is a gyps tenuirostris, whose world population is about 1,000-2499. In 2017, it was included in the "World Conservation Union" Red List of Critically Endangered Species.

This is the first time a gyps tenuirostris has been discovered in Yunnan Province.