California Condor

The Greek word for gymno is “naked” or “bare”, and the word for gyps means “vulture”. The California condor is a bare-headed vulture. The California condor’s species name is G. californianus. The name californianus comes from where the Condor lives, California. But the word condor is derived from the Ecuadorian Quechua word cuntur. The California condor has black feathers with a triangle of white on each wing. The adults have a bald head and on their neck they have a fluffy black ridge of feathers that look like a collar. They grow between 117 to 134 centimeters long and weigh from 17 to 24 pounds. The California condor is the largest flying bird in North America, living only in the south western United States.

The California condor lives

The California condor or, Gymnogyps californianus, for instance, it has a hooked beak so that they can dig into the carcasses left by previous predators. Unlike its close looking cousins like the eagle or vultures, the condors don’t have a good sense of smell so they depend on their eyes to see their prey. They consume mostly large mammals on which they can eat for days. The California condor is often called "nature’s cleanup crew", because they eat all the dead carcasses left behind. Being scavengers, Condors don’t kill their food; instead they depend on other predators in the area to kill the animals so they can consume the remains. The condor will eat anything from the remains of a deer, to a large marine mammal like a whale. “California condors can soar on warm thermal updrafts for hours, reaching speeds of more than 55 miles per hour and altitudes of 15,000 feet with flights up to 150 miles. Condors hold their wings in a horizontal position and fly very steadily.” (Calvin & Rosanna Hamilton, 2005-2008) California condors mature and reproduce slowly. They don't breed until they are between six and eight years old, and the female lays only one egg every two years. If that egg is removed, however, she will lay a second or a third. With this in mind, scientists captured wild condors for captive breeding and also began to collect eggs for captive

They use their large wings to fly around and spot carcasses below. “There are about 435 California condors in the world today, in which 237 are living in the southwestern part of California. They live in California, Arizona, and Baja California, Mexico.” (Defenders of Wildlife, 2013) They’re as north as Big Sur to Ventura County and as east as the Sierra Nevada Mountain range, with other populations inhabiting the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Their habitat consists of forests, canyons, gorges and mountains. They make their nests high in caves, or cliff faces. California condors require large areas of remote landscape for foraging and nesting. Condors roost on large trees or openings on tall isolated rocky cliff faces. The condors need places with minimum disturbances for the hatchlings to be safe. The population almost went extinct in 1980 but now they fly freely throughout the southwestern part of the United