California Condor

scientific name

Gymnogyps californianus

size/height

Weight: 17-25 pounds
Height: 45-55 inches
Wingspan: 9.5 feet

adaptations/coloration

Color: Condors have mostly bald heads and necks with multi-colored skin; colors include pink, red, orange, yellow and light blue. The birds' body feathers are black except for white underwing linings.

Beak: Condors' beaks are long, sharp and powerful, and can pierce the hide of a horse. They are used to tear flesh from carcasses, and to touch, feel and explore surroundings.

Senses: Condors have keen eyesight to help them spot food from great heights. They also have good hearing.

behavior

Feeding: Condors are scavengers who normally feed in groups where strict dominance hierarchy is followed; dominant birds usually eat first and take the best parts of the carcass.

Roosting: Condors often roost in groups on large trees or on isolated rocky outcrops and cliffs. They will return to the same roost sites year after year.

reproduction/life span

Lifespan: Condors' lifespan is not currently known, but scientists estimate that wild condors do not live much more than 40 years. The oldest California condor in captivity was born in 1966.
Sexually mature: 5 to 7 years of age.
Eggs laid per clutch: one.
Egg incubation: 54-58 days.
Chicks are independent at 1 to 2 years of age.

diet

Wild: carcasses of large mammals like deer, whales, seals and cattle
Zoo: rats, rabbits, dairy calves, meat logs and occasionally mice and fish

habitat/range

Nests are placed in caves and on cliffs. Foraging habitat includes open grasslands and oak savanna foothills.

The condor's range once extended across much of North America, but by 1940 it had been reduced to the coastal mountains of southern California. Today condors are being reintroduced into the mountains of southern California, in the Big Sur vicinity of the central California coast, and near the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

status

Critically endangered.