Jordan's Condor Report

The California condor lays about one egg every other year in the wild. The egg takes about 56 days to hatch. If you take a condors egg it may lay a second or a third egg. The condor fledgling doesn't become independent through the next breeding season.

The condor likes mountain areas with nearby open country to nest. Once a condor becomes 6 or 7 years old it is ready to mate. Condors use simple nests. When the chick is between 6 and 7 months old it will take its first flight.

The condor's wingspan is about 9.5 feet wide. The condor is the largest flying bird in North America. An adult condor weighs about 22 pounds. Adults are mostly black with white patches under the wings. The condor has no feathers on its head.

The condor's head is bald because it is a scavenger and so it does not get dirty it has no feathers on its head.

By the 1800's the condor was rarely seen. The condor is still very scarce in the wild. In 1973 the condor was put on the endangered species list and still is. The reasons for its decline were careless hunters DDT and lead poisoning. Animals the condor ate were shot the condor ate them and the lead in the animals would kill the condor.

The condor rides warm updrafts called thermals. It can fly up to 15,000 feet. That is as high as some airplanes fly! Condors can fly up to 100 miles a day.
A condor could fly from my house to the south part of Point Reyes in one day!

The condor has made a big recovery in numbers. In 1945 there were less than 25 condors in the wild. There are now more than 50 condors in the wild. Scientists have been raising condors and setting them free in the wild. Scientists would take a wild condor's egg and raise it. They would also take wild condors and mate them.