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After that time, they continue to roost and forage with their parents until they are in their second year. Chicks, covered in grayish down, hatch with their eyes open, but it is five or six months before young condors can fly. If the chick or egg is lost or removed, the female can lay another egg to replace it.Ī condor egg hatches after 53 to 60 days of incubation by both parents. A mated female lays one whitish egg every other year. The “nest” is really adornment of the site where the egg is laid, using bits of detritus within reach, sometimes augmented by dried bits of regurgitated food. Sometimes, the egg is laid in a large hole in a very old tree. Photo by David Calhoun, Shutterstock.Ī condor pair makes a simple nest in caves or within cliff openings, especially ones with nearby roosting trees and open spaces. Inland, carcasses of deer and other quarry left by hunters are often targeted, as are stillborn or other dead livestock.Ĭalifornia Condor soaring. Along California's coastline, they descend to feed on marine mammal carcasses, including those of whales, dolphins, and sea lions. The bird's appetite for large carcasses remains: As is true of its only close cousin the Andean Condor, the California Condor wanders widely seeking carrion, in searches that can land them along the coast or inland, depending upon the population. This was the age of giant mammals, and the condor fed on the carcasses of mammoths and many other now-extinct creatures. What could possibly satiate the appetite of a huge bird that even “out-sizes” the impressive Bald Eagle? Surf and Turfĭuring the last ice age, California Condors ranged across North America. California Condors are also very long-lived birds, surviving up to 60 years in the wild, which is not too far from the record held by the oldest known wild bird, a Laysan Albatross named Wisdom, which is at least 71 years old. Sibley writes that a condor aloft “can be mistaken for a small airplane.” This bird's amazing nine-foot wingspan equals or slightly surpasses that of the American White Pelican, and the scavenging giant weighs about as much as a two-year-old toddler (23 pounds), matching the heft of the continent's largest waterfowl species, the Trumpeter Swan. Often called North America's largest flying land bird, the California Condor is certainly among the continent's top “big” birds.