The Hooded Vulture is a typical vulture, with a bald pink head and a greyish “hood”. It has fairly uniform dark brown body plumage. It has broad wings for soaring and short tail feathers. It is a small species compared to most vultures. Females are larger than males. The bare skin on their faces is reddish pink but may become bluish when the birds are excited.

Hooded vultures are silent birds and mated pairs are devoted to each other, roosting together outside the breeding season. They will usually roost close to their preferred breeding site. 

Like other vultures it is a scavenger, feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals and waste which it finds by soaring over savannah and around human habitation, including waste tips and abattoirs. This vulture is typically unafraid of humans, and frequently gathers around habitation. It is sometimes referred to as the “garbage collector” by locals. Vultures detect dead animals by sight and by the movements of other vultures and carrion eating birds. They sometimes gorge so heavily that they can scarcely fly.

All vultures, in spite of their apparently "unappetizing" manner of feeding, are quite clean birds and bathe frequently.