Rounded off to the nearest 1000', what is the altitude record for a bird flying under its own power? What species of bird holds this record?

I found this, don't know if it's the answer you're looking for?
37,000: Altitude at which a Ruppell's vulture, the highest-flying bird, collided with a plane over the Ivory Coast, November, 29, 1973. source

That's exactly what I was looking for, Mozart, although my source said 37,900'. (What's a few hundred feet at that height, anyway.) My team was asked this question last night in a Trivia contest, and the people running the contest had the wrong answer. They said it was geese at 25,000'. I knew a bird collided with a plane at about 37,000, but didn't remember if it was a vulture or a condor. I hate it when the people running the show can't come up with the right answer. They also had another answer wrong. Had they they right answers, we would have had 2 more points. We ended up in second by a point.

"The altitude record is held by a Rüppell's griffon Gyps rueppelli, a vulture with a 10-foot wingspan. On November 29, 1975 one was sucked into a jet engine 37,900 feet above the Ivory Coast in West Africa." - TheStraightDope.com

"The highest-flying bird ever recorded was a Ruppell's griffon, a vulture with a wingspan of about 10 feet; on November 29, 1975, a Ruppell's griffon was sucked into a jet engine 37,900 feet above the Ivory Coast--more than a mile and a half higher than the summit of Mount Everest." - magazine.audubon.org/birds


By the way - My choice of title for this referred to the Byrds' recording, "Eight Miles High." The vulture got close.