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 age, and the skin color of the head changes from a fleshy to slate gray at about 18 weeks. In the fully developed juvenile plumage, the bill is black, the gray-black head and neck are largely covered with gray down, the iris is dark brown, and a feather ruff at the base of the neck is well developed. The body feathers are uniformly blackish, except that many have paler brownish margins at their ends. The wing-lining triangles underside of the extended wings are basically white but are irregularly mottled with dark brown markings and usually a dark spot near the body.
During the bird’s fifth year, a condor gradually achieves full adult coloration, with head color gradually becoming full orange except for a saddle of very short black feathers in front of the eyes., The underwing feathers will become less mottled to pure white, and the bars on the tops of the wings change from light gray to pure white. Over a longer time span the bill color also changes from black to ivory