Informational Posts

Learning about condors and the natural world in and of itself is a contribution. Knowledge of how biological systems work and the life cycles of animals and plants helps guide our society’s ability to make good land management decisions. Help from Home Be a citizen scientist and help condor recovery right from home. Go to…

Condors can be tagged on either wing. In the early days of the California Condor Recovery Program, every condor was tagged on both wings. Now condors in southern California just wear one wing tag and it can be on either side. The tags are attached by piercing the patagium of the wing. When wearing transmitters…

The numbers on the wing tags represent the last one or two digits of the bird’s studbook number. Male condor #509 wears a black tag with the number “9” and female #111 wears a red tag with the number “11”. Be sure to let us know if you see any unusual tagged condors visiting the…

All condors are tagged with at least one distinct color/number wing-mounted tags for identification in the field. Some condors are also fitted with wing-mounted GPS transmitters, like male #509, which biologists use to track their movements in the wild. Condors cannot be given traditional bird bands because they show a thermoregulatory behavior called urohydrosis, in…

The California Condor Recovery Program (Recovery Program) is a multi-entity effort, led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to recover the endangered California condor. Partners in condor recovery include the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Arizona Game and Fish Department, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Utah Department of…

From 1987 to 1992, no California condors flew free in the California skies. In 1992 captive-bred condors were released into the wild at Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge north of Ventura, with additional captive-reared birds added to the flock each year thereafter.

Yes, California condors are protected under the Endangered Species Act and listed as federally endangered. They are one of the rarest birds in the world. In 1982, there were only 22 California condors in the world. That year, these remaining condors were placed into a captive breeding program thus beginning an an intensive recovery program…

Adult California condors have a distinctive pink head and neck that is bare of feathers. That bare head is perfectly designed to keep rotting food from sticking to it as the birds eat. The skin on an adult condor’s head can also express some emotions. It turns a deep red-pink during courtship or when the…

Condors are usually silent (they lack vocal chords), but can issue a variety of hisses and snorts particularly when defending nest sites. Newborn chicks hiss, wheeze, and grunt at adults.

Condors do not have a strong sense of smell.

Yes. Condors are diurnal like us. They sleep at night, usually high up in a tree or cliff called a roost. Condors demonstrate communal roosting behavior, oftentimes gathering in groups at dusk. To sleep, they lie prone on their perch with their head tucked behind a wing.

Condors visit pools, ponds, and waterfalls to get water and bathe.

California condors can fly over 150 miles in a day in search of food. Condors locate carcasses with their keen eyesight (not by smell) by observing other scavengers assembled at a carcass. Once they land, they take over the carcasses from smaller species (such as ravens and turkey vultures), but they are tolerant of each…

Condors are scavengers that eat carrion of land and marine mammals such as deer, cattle, pigs, rabbits, sea lions, and whales.  Young are fed by regurgitation.

Pairs maintain a nesting territory that range in size from a square mile to few square miles in size depending on the topography. Condors have a much larger overlapping home ranges that are thousands of square miles annually. A condor can travel up to 200 miles in a in a day while foraging for carrion.

California condors have few natural predators due to their size. However, large terrestrial predators such as mountain lions, coyotes, and bobcats have been known to predate adult and juvenile condors. The golden eagle is the only avian species that poses a threat to adult, juvenile, and young condors. Eggs and nestlings are also at risk…

California condors are very large soaring birds. They are about 4 feet long with a wingspan of 9.5 feet. They typically weigh 17-23 lbs and males tend to be heavier than females.

California condors can live very long lives. We believe that condors can live upwards of 60 years or more. As of 2015, the oldest known California condor is 49 years old and still breeding successfully in captivity at the Los Angeles Zoo. The oldest wild condor is 35 years old and still breeding successfully in…

There are approximately 430 California condors in the world.

The camera is an Axis Q6044e.

The cam will stream during the entire nesting season. We expect this chick to fledge between mid-October and mid-November. However, even after fledging, it is common for condor chicks and adults to occasionally return to the nest. So don’t be surprised if you see the chick back on the camera after fledging.

No, the condors usually ignore the camera. Chicks can be quite mobile and curious—it’s likely that the chick will investigate the camera at some point.

California condor nestlings have evolved to be able to survive days in isolation while parents are foraging. While the young condors on cam have experienced parents that keep their young well-fed, there is always the risk of a parent dying. Via nest camera, we have observed a single parent continue to care for and fledge…

From the food it receives from its parents.

Yes. Fledglings remain dependent on their parents for another 6-12 months. The total length of a nesting cycle is more than a year.

At hatch, condor chicks have white down and naked orangeish-yellow heads and necks. The white body down is replaced by a gray down within several weeks, and a short gray down begins to develop on the head and neck by about 50 days of age. Juvenile feathers begin to appear at about 2 months of…

Chicks take about 6 months to make their first flight. Some fledge a bit earlier or later.

California condors may travel up to 200 miles to gather food for their chicks. One of them stays with the chick constantly for the first three to four weeks. As the chick grows, it needs more food. The parents stay away for longer and longer, up to 3 days. So keep watching—they will almost certainly…

Upon hatching, nestlings weigh about 9 ounces. When they fledge, five to seven months later, they weigh approximately 17-20 pounds.

We can’t tell the chick’s gender just by looking. The only way to know a condor’s gender for sure is by DNA testing or, with adults, by observing behavior (for example, witnessing the female lay an egg, or seeing the male perching on the back of the female during mating). We typically determine the chick’s…

Yes. When the nestling is approximately 4 months old, trained biologists will tag it so that it can be tracked after fledging. Every wild California condor chick is given a single wing tag and radio transmitter.

California condor eggs are about 4.5 inches long and almost 3 inches wide and weigh about 11 ounces. Condor eggs are pale blue-green when they are first laid but over time they fade to white or creamy white.

Eggs hatch in about 54-58 days.

Condors lay their egg between January and late May.

Female condors lay only one egg per nesting attempt and they don’t always nest every year. If a pair’s egg fails early enough in the breeding season, females will often recycle by laying a replacement egg. Often, pairs will skip a year in between breeding attempts to provide extended care for their last offspring.

The number of condor nests in southern California varies each year, however, this year (2015) the population experienced a recording breaking year with 10 wild nests! All of these nests are located in Ventura County in the rugged back country surrounding Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge.

Sometimes. They typically nest in the same general area as condor pairs tend to establish a nesting territory. Pairs will sometimes use the same nest year after year but other times they will move the nest location within their territory from year to year.

It’s very difficult to tell males from females. In general the males are slightly larger. The only sure ways to tell the sexes apart are to see certain behaviors such as copulation or egg-laying, or by using a DNA test. Every California condor in the southern California flock has been tagged and sexed. In this…

Both parents participate equally in incubating the egg and feeding the chick. After the female lays the egg, both parents take turns incubating it while the other forages for food. Incubation shifts typically last 1-2 days but can be for up to 7 days.

California condors take a long time to begin breeding. Condors reach sexual maturity at 5-6 years of age. Oftentimes, males will establish a territory and then begin looking for a mate and courting. Some condors find a mate and breed as soon as they are mature whereas others breed for the first time when they…

California condors form very long-lasting pair bonds. A pair that has nested successfully at least once is very likely to remain together unless one member of the pair dies. Raising a chick takes approximately 8 months from laying to fledging. Raising a chick is so demanding that there’s a real benefit to a pair to…

The parent’s names, or in fact numbers, represent their studbook number. Upon hatch, every condor is assigned a number which acts as a way to identify each individual. Since 1983, every known condor has been assigned a studbook number in chronological order; the lower the number, the older the condor. A studbook is an important…

The parents of the chick in the Koford’s Ridge nest are female #111 and male #509. Male condor #509 fledged from a wild nest in Hopper Canyon in 2009 and #111 hatched at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in 1994 and was released at Lion Canyon in southern California, in 1995. This is their…

This California condor nest is located in the Sespe Condor Sanctuary, Los Padres National Forest, near Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge in southern California. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists and Santa Barbara Zoo staff hiked awkward and heavy camera equipment on foot along deep canyons and steep ridgelines for installation into the cliffside nest…