California Condor

Gymnogyps californianus

California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus): North America's Largest Flying Land Bird and Its Comeback

The California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is North America's largest flying land bird, a bare-headed scavenger that fell to 22 birds in 1982 and was saved by captive breeding and reintroduction.

Habitat

Cliffs, canyons, oak savanna and open coast

Size

Wingspan 2.5–3 m (to 9.5 ft); 7–11 kg

Diet

Carrion: deer, cattle, rodents, marine mammals

Range

California, Arizona/Utah, Baja California

Conservation

Critically Endangered; 607 total, 392 wild (end of 2025)

Lifespan

Up to 60 years

Habitat & range

California condors live in rugged country with cliffs, canyons, oak savanna and open coast, where steady winds and rising thermals let them soar for hours. They nest and roost on cliff ledges, in caves and in large tree cavities such as old redwoods and sequoias. In the Pleistocene they ranged across much of North America, from the Pacific coast to Florida and New York, according to the National Park Service. Today reintroduced flocks fly over central and southern California (Big Sur, Pinnacles, the mountains north of Los Angeles), northern Arizona and southern Utah around the Grand Canyon and Vermilion Cliffs, and the Sierra San Pedro Mártir in Baja California. Since 2022 an experimental flock has been released in Yurok Ancestral Territory and Redwood National Park in northern California.

Diet & foraging

California condors are obligate scavengers. They do not hunt, and their blunt claws cannot grab or carry prey. They feed on carcasses of deer, cattle, sheep and other large animals, as well as rodents, rabbits, fish and stranded marine mammals such as sea lions and whales. Unlike turkey vultures, they have a poor sense of smell and find food mainly by sight. A condor can eat 1 to 1.4 kg (2 to 3 lb) of meat at one sitting and then go several days without food. Groups often feed together on one carcass. Condors also pick up small bones and shell fragments, which may supply calcium, but they sometimes swallow bottle caps, glass and other "micro-trash" by mistake and feed it to their chicks.

Behavior & adaptations

With a wingspan of about 2.5 to 3 m (up to 9.5 ft) and a weight of 7 to 11 kg, the California condor is North America's largest flying land bird. It flaps very little, riding thermals and ridge winds, and can reach about 88 km/h (55 mph) and altitudes of 4,600 m (15,000 ft). The bare head and neck stay cleaner when feeding inside carcasses and may help with temperature control. The skin flushes deeper pink-red when a condor is excited or courting. Like other New World vultures, condors cool down on hot days by excreting onto their legs, a behavior called urohidrosis. Condors have no true syrinx, so they only hiss and grunt. A female lays a single egg on bare ground in a cave or ledge, both parents incubate it for 53 to 60 days, and a chick may stay with its parents for up to two years. Birds take about six years to mature and can live up to 60 years.

Conservation

The California condor is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and has been federally endangered in the United States since 1967. Shooting, egg collecting, poison set for predators, power lines and above all lead poisoning from bullet fragments in carcasses and gut piles drove it down to just 22 birds in 1982. In 1987 biologists made the controversial decision to capture every remaining wild bird. The last one, AC-9, was taken on 19 April 1987, leaving 27 condors, all in captivity at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo. Breeders removed the first egg so pairs would lay a second (double clutching) and raised chicks with hand puppets shaped like a condor head, so the chicks would not imprint on people. Releases began in California in January 1992 and in Arizona in December 1996, later followed by Baja California and northern California. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service counted 607 California condors at the end of 2025, including 392 in the wild and 215 in breeding centers at the Peregrine Fund, Los Angeles Zoo, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Oregon Zoo and Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City. Lead is still the main threat: it caused half of all wild condor deaths with a known cause from 1992 to 2025.

Taxonomy & relatives

Gymnogyps californianus (Shaw, 1797) is the only living species in its genus. It belongs to the New World vulture family Cathartidae, together with the turkey vulture, black vulture, king vulture and the Andean condor. Authorities disagree on the order. ITIS places Cathartidae in Accipitriformes with hawks and eagles, while the IOC World Bird List, the American Ornithological Society and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance use a separate order, Cathartiformes. Wilder follows ITIS, as it does for the Andean condor card.

Fun facts about California Condor

• Every California condor alive today descends from just 13 founder birds, according to San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
• Chicks hatched in breeding centers are fed with a condor-head hand puppet so they grow up recognizing condors, not people.
• Some Indigenous peoples called condors "thunderbirds", linking the sound of their huge wingbeats to thunder.
• A condor's bare head flushes a deeper pink-red when it is excited, alarmed or courting.
• Condor bones, feathers and eggshells in Grand Canyon caves show the birds lived there in the Pleistocene, when they fed on mastodons and giant ground sloths.

California Condor vs Bald Eagle

The California Condor wins at the carcass through size and reach, while the Bald Eagle stays the better hunter.

On the California coast, condors and bald eagles sometimes turn up at the same carcass, such as a deer or a stranded sea lion. The condor is bigger and heavier, with a wingspan close to 3 m, and at a carcass it spreads its wings and pushes in to claim the best spot. The eagle has the sharper talons and is the better hunter, but at a shared meal it usually waits on a nearby perch or snatches scraps, while the condor holds its place with its heavy hooked bill and sheer size. It is a contest of presence, not a real fight. Once the condor has eaten, it lifts off on rising thermals and leaves the remains to the eagle.

Read more about Bald Eagle.

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