The white-backed vulture is primarily a lowland species of open wooded savanna, particularly areas of Acacia. It requires tall trees for nesting.

White-backed vultures are carnivores and scavengers, they eat mainly carcasses and bone fragments.
They are gregarious when feeding, and large numbers of them gather when food is abundant. As many as 100 White-backed vultures may gather near a dead animal. With so many competitors for food, fights happen.
They are adapted for feeding on soft tissue, and are not able to tear open large carcasses that have thick skin. They search for food by soaring high in the air, using their keen eyesight. Once an individual sees a freshly killed animal, it will wheel in the sky as a signal to other vultures to fly down and eat. After gorging on food, a vulture may bathe at a favorite site with other species, or rest with its wings spread and back to the sun.