Free Flash Slideshow by cu3ox.com v1.1

Exploring the beautiful nature of California


California Nature:  California Condor


The magnificent California Condor is a large black vulture which inhabits the coastal mountains of California, as well as the Grand Canyon and Baja California. The beautiful California Condor is one of the world’s rarest bird species, so if you happen to catch a glimpse of one, consider yourself very lucky!

California condors are vultures. Like all vultures, they feed on carrion. Condors prefer large dead animals like deer, cattle, and sheep, but they also eat rodents, rabbits, and even fish. They don’t have a good sense of smell like turkey vultures, so they find their food mostly by their keen eyesight. These large birds gorge themselves on 2 to 3 pounds of food at a time, and can then go without food for several days until they find another carcass. Like other scavengers, condors are part of nature’s cleanup crew, and they are an important part of the ecosystem. Without them, things could get pretty messy!
California condors are protected animals in California The adult California Condor is a uniform black, with the exception, especially in the male, of large triangular patches or bands of white on the underside of the wings. It has gray legs and feet, an ivory-colored bill, a frill of black feathers surrounding the base of the neck, and brownish red eyes. The juvenile is mostly a mottled dark brown with blackish coloration on the head. It has mottled gray instead of white on the underside of its flight feathers.

The California Condor has a body length of 43-52 inches, a wingspan up to 9 1/2 feet, and weighs between 18 and 23 pounds. Adult California condors have distinctive pink, bald heads. They may not be the prettiest birds you’ve ever seen, but those bald heads are perfectly designed to keep rotting food from sticking to them as they eat. The skin on the bare heads of adults can also express some emotions. It turns a deep red-pink during courtship or when the birds are excited or alarmed. The adults also have a throat sack that they can puff out during courtship displays. Condors do not have claws or talons like hawks and eagles but nails resembling toenails.
California Condors live 45-80 years, but average about 60 years if conditions are right for their survival. Historically, California condor decline was the result of a combination of high death rate and a naturally low reproductive rate. Current major threats to wild California condors are lead poisoning, electrocution by colliding with power poles and poaching or accidental shooting. 

Condors can soar to heights of 15,000 feet and may travel up to 150 miles a day in search of their next meal. They do not have a good sense of smell so they find their food mostly by their keen eyesight. 

When in flight, the movements of the condor are remarkably graceful. The lack of a large sternum to anchor their correspondingly large flight muscles restricts them to being primarily soarers. The birds flap their wings when taking off from the ground, but after attaining a moderate elevation they largely glide, sometimes going for miles without a single flap of their wings. California Condors have been known to fly as quickly as 50 mph.
California condors are the largest flying birds in the world Condors begin to look for a mate when they reach sexual maturity at the age of six. To attract a prospective mate, the male condor performs a display where he turns his head red and puffs out his neck feathers. He then spreads his wings and slowly approaches the female. If the female lowers her head to accept the male, the condors become mates for life.

The pair makes a simple nest in caves or on cliff clefts, especially ones with nearby roosting trees and open spaces for landing. A mated female lays one bluish-white egg every other February or March. The egg weighs about 10 ounces and measures from 3.5–4.75 inches in length and about 2.6 inches in width. If the chick or egg is lost or removed, the parents "double clutch", or lay another egg to take the lost one's place. Researchers and breeders take advantage of this behavior to double the reproductive rate by taking the first egg away for hand-rearing; this induces the parents to lay a second egg, which the condors are sometimes allowed to raise.

The eggs hatch after 53 to 60 days of incubation by both parents. Chicks are born with their eyes open and sometimes can take up to a week to hatch from their egg. The young are covered with a grayish down until they are almost as large as their parents. They are able to fly after five to six months, but continue to roost and hunt with their parents until they turn two, at which point they are displaced by a new clutch
California condors are one of the largest flying birds. At one time there were thousands of them in the wild, ranging across the western United States and into Mexico. Native American tribes have great respect for the condor and see it as a symbol of power. They call it the thunderbird because they believe it brings thunder to the skies with the beating of its huge wings.

Destruction of habitat, poaching, and lead poisoning almost wiped out the California condor population. In 1982, only 22 birds remained in the wild. The San Diego Zoo was given permission to begin the first captive propagation program for California condors. The program also involved the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Game, the National Audubon Society, and the Los Angeles Zoo. There are two sanctuaries dedicated to the California Condor, the Sisquoc Condor Sanctuary in the San Rafael Wilderness and the Sespe Condor Sanctuary in the Los Padres National Forest. These areas were chosen because of their prime condor nesting habitat.
Blackbirds    California Condor    Cardinals    Cranes    Crows, Jays, & Magpies   Eagles    Finches    Flycatchers    Hawks Hummingbirds    Owls    Game Birds    Raptors    Shore Birds    Sparrows    Tanager    Thrushes    Vultures    Wading Birds Warblers      Woodpeckers      Wrens
 
 
Website Created by Website Creations

About us      Privacy Disclaimer      Advertisers     Contact Us     Bookstore    Sitemap     Search    Floridian Nature