Canyon Country Animals
Birds: California Condor
The California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is the largest flying land bird in North America, weighing up to 25 pounds, with a wing span of nearly 10 feet. They can soar and glide at speeds up to 50 miles per hour and may travel 100 miles or more in a day in search of food.
Related to turkey vultures, condors are opportunistic scavengers that feed on large dead mammals such as deer, elk, bighorn sheep, range cattle, and horses.
Photos
Notes
The main photo on this page was taken from the south rim of the Grand Canyon in 2005. On this occasion several California Condors put on a show for us tourists as we stood along the edge of the canyon. They would zoom around just in front of us as if performing. It was quite spectacular watching these magnificent, large birds passing over and over again in front of us.
We have also seen a condor flying near the Vermillion Cliffs, in the Marble Canyon area between Grand Canyon National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
Male and female condors look alike. Their feathers are black except for a white triangle-shaped patch beneath their wings. These patches, visible in flight, are a key identification characteristic. Adults have pinkish-orange, featherless heads and ivory-colored bills. Juveniles have dark-colored heads and black bills until they are three to four years old.
Condors are long-lived birds, surviving up to 60 years in the wild. They become sexually mature at six to seven years of age and mate for life. Condors are cavity-nesting birds—most nest sites have been found in caves, on rock ledges, or in tree cavities—but they do not build nests. Every other year the female lays a single egg directly on the floor of the nest site. The nestling emerges after 56 days and fledges in five to six months. The parents share incubation and feeding responsibilities; they feed the nestling by regurgitating partially digested food. Young condors may stay in the nesting ares for up to a year.
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