The California Condor is probably the most endangered bird in all of North America. There were only a couple dozen birds a few years ago. Many attempts have been made to bring them back from the brink of extinction. This largest American bird (along with its South American cousin, the Andean Condor) has been declining since the Pleistocene extinction of the giant mammals, such as the mammoth, mastodon, and wooly rhinoceros. Evidence suggests the Condor may have been found from Texas to the Pacific Northwest. Human activity is only partly responsible for the disappearance of this giant that is dependent on large carcasses.
One might think that superhighways with their abundance of roadkill would be a boon for such a scavenger, except that the Condor with its heavy body and enormous wingspan must run to take off, giving it little time to escape oncoming automobiles. Also, with the cessation of periodic, natural burning to maintain the open grasslands, there is less suitable forage for elk and deer, the remaining sources of large, protein-rich carrion. The use of lead shot by hunters indirectly harms condors that eat a carcass containing it. The pair of birds has only one offspring every two years, with that one requiring parental care for up to a year. A great general source for bird habits and habitat is: The World Atlas of Birds (Sir Peter Scott, ed., Mitchell Beazley Publishers, Ltd., London, 1974).
This bird is unmistakable: 46 inches in length, wingspan of 109 inches, and a weight of 23 pounds. It is mostly dark gray, with white on the front of the wings, has a bare red head, varying from pink to orange. The scientific name is Gymnogyps californianus (National Audubon Society: The Sibley Guide to Birds, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, 2000 by David Allen Sibley). The Condors, along with the more familiar vultures found throughout the U.S., belong to the Cathartidae, unlike the Old World vultures that belong in the Accipitridae with hawks and eagles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condor).
California Condors soar in great circles that are wider than those of an eagle. Carcasses are located when they see other scavengers which gather but cannot tear open the flesh sufficiently. They dominate all but an eagle at a carcass, may eat up to three pounds at a time, and survive for two weeks without eating. Parents place a foot on a juvenile’s leg to restrain it, as when it leaves its beak in the parent’s beak too long when feeding. The juveniles take months to learn to fly without crashing (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/california_condor/overview#).
Green energy may come at a price for Condors. There have been no known deaths of Condors from wind turbines. As their numbers recover in California, where the population was 337 at end of 2019, which leads the nation in green energy, it could happen. In December 2020, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a “take” permit for an electrical utility operating in northern California to allow inadvertent killing of up to two condors over a period of thirty years. In return the utility will have to spend money to promote conservation at their southern California site for thirty years, including a fence around the plant that can detect GPS tagged Condors to alert the facility to shut down its operation temporarily. A decision will be made in February (https://www.audubon.org/news/government -proposes-first-take-permit-condor-deaths-wind-farm).
Fortunately, condors have now been established in the wild in the Grand Canyon and have expanded from Arizona into Utah. After the population was down to only 22 birds in the wild, all of them were taken into captivity in 1987. Captive breeding was successful. Caretakers used Condor look-alike puppets to feed the young to make sure they did not imprint on humans. With this success, they are being re-stocked in the wild, including places where they have not been found in hundreds of years.
