California Condors

California Condors
(Gymnogyps californianus)

This is one big bird. At 18-22 lbs and with a wingspan approaching 10 ft, the California Condor is one of the largest flying birds ever. It's one of the rarest, too, though an unprecedented effort to save it from extinction is changing that.

About the California Condor

The California Condor is related to vultures, and like vultures it eats carrion and has no feathers on its head and neck. The distinctive orange-red head and white pattern under the wings develop as adult birds mature. Younger birds have a black or gray head and a gray pattern under the wings.

Condors use their large wings to soar. They can fly as much as 150 miles in a single day in search of food, and climb on thermals to altitudes up to 15,000 feet. They can go anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks between meals, so using the wind and thermals to climb and travel allows them to conserve energy between meals.

Like vultures and other scavengers, condors are part of "nature's cleanup crew". Condors prefer large dead animals like deer, sheep, seals, sea lions, cattle, and even whales that wash ashore, but they'll also eat rodents, rabbits, and fish. Like other scavengers, they aren't picky and will eat what they can find. Unlike vultures, however, condors have a poor sense of smell and rely on their excellent eyesight to find food.

California Condors eggs have after about 53 to 60 days of incubation by both parents. It can take the chick up to a week to break its way out of the egg. In 5-6 months they are able to fly, but they stay close to their parents until they are two years old. California Condors are one of the longest-living birds, with a lifespan up to 50 years.

Returning from the Brink

Fossil records from the late Pleistocene (about 12,000 years ago) show there were condors across what is now the southern United States as far as Florida, and as far north as upstate New York. By the time European settlers reached the west coast, the California Condor's range had reduced to the Southwest and the Pacific coast from British Columbia to Baja California.

Much changed with the arrival of Europeans. Hunting and egg collecting took a great toll. Ranchers shot many condors, mistakenly thinking that they were killing livestock. Many died from lead poisoning after carcasses left behind by hunters, as well as from DDT poisoning.

By 1981, there were only 22 California Condors left in the world. If nothing was done, they would go the way of the passenger pigeon and dodo. Scientists came up with a plan, and with the endorsement of the US Fish and Game Service the last California Condors were captured from the wild in 1986 and 1987 for a captive breeding program.

Although no captive-laid California Condor egg had been hatched when the program began, the breeding program was a quick success. By 1991 the number of condors had grown and the first California Condors were released in California. When some of the released birds died from collisions with power lines and ingesting lead shot in carcasses left behind by hunters, biologists began an aversion conditioning program to train captive-bred condors to avoid power lines and people.

Through the continuing efforts of many organizations, there are now more than 330 California Condors, more than half of them flying free in California, Arizona, Utah, and Baja California. Each bird is tagged and closely monitored. Paws of the Planet is proud to support Ventana Wildlife Society’s “California Condor Recovery Program”. The Ventana Wildlife Society releases and monitors California Condors in the Big Sur area of California, and when needed they recapture and care for birds that are injured or become sick from ingesting lead or other causes.

You can learn more about the California Condor and conservation efforts at the following web sites:

California Condor Conservation

Ventana Wildlife Society

San Diego Zoo

The Peregrine Fund

Molloko