Californian Condors

02/06/2007 00:00:00 California condors (Gymnogyps californianus) are the largest flying land bird in North America. Condors are members of New World vultures, Family Cathartidae, and are opportunistic scavengers that feed primarily on large dead mammals such as deer, elk, bighorn sheep, range cattle, and horses. Condors have a wingspan of 9 ½ feet, and can weigh up to 25 pounds as adults. Using thermal updrafts, condors can soar and glide up to 50 miles per hour and travel 100 miles or more per day in search of food.

California condors are not sexually dimorphic like a majority of raptors, i.e., males and females are identical in size and plumage. Adult condors are primarily black except for bleach white feathers in a triangle-shape pattern beneath their wings (underwing covert feathers). These patches are highly visible when condors are flying overhead and are a key identification characteristic.

STOP PRESS, DECEMBER 2006
Wildlife groups sue for ban on lead shot. Adult condors have pinkish-orange featherless heads, ivory coloured bills, and the sclera of the eye is red. Juvenile condors are also mostly black with underwing coverts that are mottled gray in color also but triangular shaped like adults. Juvenile condors have dark colored heads until they are about 3 to 4 years old when the head starts to turn pink. The juvenile bill is black and changes to an ivory as the bird matures.

Condors are long-lived species with low reproductive rates. They can live up to 60 years in the wild, and become sexually mature at six or seven years of age. Condors mate for life and females lay a single egg, about five inches in length and weighing around 10 ounces, every other year. Male and female condors share incubation shifts.

Condors are cavity-nesting birds. Most nest sites have been found in caves, on rock ledges, or in tree cavities. Condors do not build nests; instead, the egg is deposited on the floor of the cave, ledge, or tree. The egg hatches after about 56 days of incubation and both parents share responsibilities for feeding the nestling by regurgitation. Young condors fledge at five to six months of age, but may stay in the nesting area for up to one year. Threats to Condors
Condors are threatened by by a loss of habitat, loss of food supply and lead pellets. A Condor was recently (July 2006) found to be very sick. However after being trapped and treated for lead poisoning at Phoenix zoo, the condor recovered completely and was released back into the wild. The lead was consumed when eating a carcass left over from a hunting expedition, using lead shot.