While not a true bird of prey, they eat only carrion. A bird of prey will kill and eat. Condors cruise the thermals with their keen eyesight looking for dead animals. Usually they'll spot eagles or ravens on a carcass. Then, because of their size, condors will come swooping in and literally bully the other birds off the carcass.
They have no hair or feathers on their head because that would be too messy to keep clean. Who ever thought a bird that eats only carrion could be so fastidious?!?!
As we can see from all the preening that they do, looking good is obviously important.
Condors do mate for life. This fella (#80) was hanging out on this ledge while his mate was flying around looking for food. They live up to 60 years but are very slow breeders. The female lays only one egg every other year. The last wild condors were taken into captivity in 1987 and literally hand fed back from extinction. Breeders used a hand puppet that looked like a condor to teach the chick how to eat. The chick takes a week to break out of it's egg shell. Both the mom and dad help raise the chick.
Lead ammunition left in the gut pile by hunters was one of the main causes for condor mortality. Now hunters are using copper bullets more frequently, which is helping condors to live and live longer.
There are now over 400 condors living in California, Utah, Arizona, and northern Mexico, with over 220 living in the wild. There are several successful nesting pairs as well.
So glad to see California Condors flying majestically again in the Grand Canyon.
Imagine that bird with 9-10 foot wing span floating over head. A true success story.
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