Animal
California condor
The California condor is the biggest wild bird in North America. It has a bare pink and orange head. People helped save it when only a few were left.
The California condor is the largest wild bird in North America, a giant vulture with wings about 2.8 meters wide. In the 1980s only 22 were left. Thanks to a huge rescue effort, the US Fish and Wildlife Service counted 607 condors at the end of 2025, 392 of them flying free.
Gymnogyps californianus is a Critically Endangered New World vulture that survived only through captive breeding: every condor alive descends from the 22 birds taken into captivity by 1987. The US Fish and Wildlife Service counted 607 birds on December 31, 2025, 392 in the wild, but lead from ammunition remains the leading known cause of death.
Photo: Stacy from San Diego, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the California condor
The California condor is the biggest wild bird in North America.
It is black, with white patches under its wings. Its head has no feathers. The skin on its head is pink and orange.
The California condor is the largest wild bird in North America, bigger than a bald eagle. It is a vulture, about 1.2 to 1.3 meters long, weighing 7 to 9.9 kilograms, with wings about 2.8 meters across.
Adults are black with bright white patches under their wings. Their heads and necks are bare skin, colored pink, yellow and orange, with a ruff of black feathers around the neck like a feather boa. Young condors have dark heads, and they take six to eight years to get adult colors.
Gymnogyps californianus is the largest wild bird in North America: Cornell gives a length of 117 to 134 centimeters, a mass of 7 to 9.9 kilograms and a wingspan of about 277 centimeters. Its long, broad wings have spread primaries that give a fingered look, and its tail is short and broad.
Adults are black with striking white underwing patches and a bare yellowish-orange head and neck. Immatures have dark heads, grayer necks and mottled gray underwing patches, reaching adult coloring at six to eight years. The genus name comes from Greek gymnos, naked, referring to the bare head, and gyps, vulture.
Quick facts
- Group
- Bird
- Length
- 1.17 to 1.34 m
- Wingspan
- 2.77 m
- Weight
- 7 to 9.9 kg
- Top speed
- up to 64 km/h
Where it lives
California condors live in the mountains of the western United States and Mexico.
They nest in caves high on cliffs. They fly over grassland to find food.
About 40,000 years ago, California condors lived across much of North America. By the 1980s the last wild condors searched for food in an area of only about 7,000 square kilometers.
Today condors raised by people have been released in California, Arizona, Utah and Baja California in Mexico, and in the Pacific Northwest. They nest in caves on cliffs, in mountains up to about 1,800 meters high, and travel long distances over open grassland and along beaches to find food.
Cornell notes that in the late Pleistocene, about 40,000 years ago, the species occurred across North America; Lewis and Clark met condors in the Pacific Northwest in 1805, and birds lived in the mountains of Baja California until the 1930s. Before captive breeding began in the 1980s, the last condors foraged within about 7,000 square kilometers.
The IUCN lists the species as extant and reintroduced in the United States and Mexico. Released flocks now live in southern and central California, Arizona and Utah, Baja California and the Pacific Northwest. Nest sites range from chaparral to forested mountains up to about 1,800 meters, while foraging areas are open grasslands and coasts that can lie far from the nest.
Continent
Its habitats
Where can you find this animal?
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
- Brought back by people · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in United States, Mexico and Canada.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Brought back by people · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Every wild condor today comes from birds bred in captivity and released: in southern and central California, Arizona and Utah, the Pacific Northwest, and northern Baja California in Mexico. Condors live in only small parts of these two countries.
Places: United States and Mexico.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
What it eats
Condors eat animals that have already died.
They find them by looking down from the sky. A condor can wait a week or more between meals.
California condors are scavengers: they eat carrion, the bodies of animals that have already died, such as deer, cattle, pigs, rabbits, sea lions and even whales. They find food with their sharp eyes, not their noses, often by spotting other scavengers gathered at a carcass.
A condor can store about 1.4 kilograms of meat in its crop, a pouch in its throat. After a big meal it may not need to eat for a few days, and it can survive one to two weeks without food.
The diet is carrion of land and marine mammals, including deer, cattle, pigs, rabbits, sea lions and whales; condors also swallow bone chips and shell fragments for calcium, and favor small to medium carcasses. They locate food by sight rather than smell, often by watching other scavengers assembled at a carcass, then take it over from smaller species while feeding in tolerant groups.
The crop can hold about 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms), so a condor may need to eat only every two to three days, and it can survive one to two weeks without eating. According to the National Park Service, lead from ammunition fragments in carcasses is the number one threat to condor survival.
Did you know?
Most condors wear a big tag on their wing.
Most wild condors carry a large tag on the wing and a radio transmitter, so biologists can follow them.
Released condors carry vinyl wing tags and radio or GPS transmitters, letting biologists find nests, check health and recover birds that die.
A giant glider
Condors have huge, wide wings.
They glide in big, slow circles and hardly ever flap. Their bare heads stay clean when they eat.
A condor's wings are exceptionally long and broad, with long feathers at the tips that spread like fingers. Condors are masterful soarers that rarely flap. They fly at about 48 kilometers per hour on average and can go faster than 64.
They are so heavy that taking off is hard work, so they often launch from a cliff edge or a high branch, or run downhill in open, windy places. In cold weather they fluff up their neck feathers to stay warm.
Condors soar slowly and stably, rarely flapping, and are not buffeted by wind as smaller soaring birds are. Cornell reports an average flight speed of about 30 miles per hour (48 km/h), bursts over 40 (64 km/h), and about 16 seconds to complete a soaring circle, compared with 12 to 14 for bald and golden eagles. A condor can cover hundreds of miles in one flight.
Their weight makes take-off difficult, so they use open, windy slopes, cliff edges and high perches to get airborne. They raise their neck feathers to keep warm in cold weather; in heat, like other vultures, they cool themselves by urinating on their legs, where evaporation cools the circulating blood.
Growing up slowly
A condor mother lays just one egg.
Both parents keep it warm. The chick stays in its cliff nest for about six months before it flies. Its parents still care for it after that.
Condors lay only one egg at a time, usually on the floor of a cave or cliff ledge with little or no nest. Both parents take turns keeping it warm for 53 to 60 days. The chick hatches covered in white fluff with its eyes open.
It stays in the nest for about six months before it flies, and then depends on its parents for many more months. Because of this, most pairs do not nest every year. Condors take six to eight years to grow up, and they can probably live 50 years or more.
Pairs are monogamous, share nesting duties nearly equally and stay together until one dies. The single egg is laid on the floor of a cave or cliff ledge, sometimes on a loose pile of gravel, leaves, bark or bones; Cornell notes that condors sometimes nest in trees such as coast redwoods. Incubation lasts 53 to 60 days, and the helpless chick hatches in white down with its eyes open.
The nestling period is 163 to 180 days. Young depend on their parents for at least six months after fledging, so most pairs do not breed in successive years, and birds mature only at six to eight years. One egg every one to two years is a major reason recovery has been slow. Eggs and nestlings can be taken by common ravens, golden eagles and black bears.
Social soarers
Condors like to be together.
They sleep, bathe and eat in groups. They sit in the sun to dry and warm their feathers.
Condors pair off to nest, but they are very social at roosts, bathing spots and carcasses, and they recognize one another. They bathe often, and mates and chicks help clean each other's feathers and skin.
After eating, a condor rubs its head and neck on a rock to clean them. Condors sun themselves to dry their feathers and warm up before flying. Young condors play, pretending to catch sticks and plants and hopping about.
California condors are social at roosts, bathing sites and carcasses, and individuals recognize each other. Dominant birds threaten rivals by standing tall, inflating air sacs in the head and neck and opening the bill, but serious aggression is uncommon.
They bathe frequently, groom mates and chicks, clean the head and neck by rubbing them on rocks after feeding, and sunbathe to dry feathers and warm up before flight. Roosts are on large horizontal branches, ledges and cliff potholes. Late-stage nestlings play, mock-capturing objects and vegetation, and fledglings can take months to perfect flying and landing.
Did you know?
Explorers Lewis and Clark saw condors long ago.
When Lewis and Clark explored the Pacific Northwest in 1805, they found California condors there.
Lewis and Clark recorded condors in the Pacific Northwest in 1805; a released flock now flies in that region again.
Bringing condors back
Once there were only 22 California condors left.
People took them into zoos, helped them raise chicks and let the young fly free. Some condors get sick from tiny bits of lead in their food. Helpers test them and give them medicine.
By the 1980s only 22 California condors were left, and in 1987 the last wild one was taken into care. Zoos bred them, and in 1992 the first young condors were set free. The US Fish and Wildlife Service counted 607 condors at the end of 2025: 392 in the wild and 215 in zoos and breeding centers.
The biggest danger today is lead. When a condor eats an animal shot with lead bullets, tiny pieces can poison it. Biologists test every wild condor's blood twice a year and treat sick birds, and programs help hunters switch to lead-free bullets.
Captive breeding began in the 1980s; the last wild bird was captured in 1987, the first chicks hatched in captivity in 1988, releases began in 1992, and in 2002 the first egg laid in the wild by released birds hatched. The US Fish and Wildlife Service's 2025 status report counts 607 condors on December 31, 2025: 392 wild (216 in California, 98 in Arizona and Utah, 53 in Baja California and 25 in the Pacific Northwest) and 215 in captivity. In 2025, 46 captive-bred birds were released and about 16 chicks fledged in the wild.
Lead from ammunition fragments in carcasses remains the main threat: the Recovery Program's 2025 report counts 161 confirmed lead-poisoning deaths in the wild from 1992 through 2025, half of the 324 deaths with a known cause. Each condor is caught about twice a year for blood tests, and birds with high lead are treated by chelation. California banned lead hunting ammunition in the condor's range in 2008, Arizona runs a voluntary program, and parks and partners help hunters switch to non-lead ammunition.
IUCN Red List
How is the california condor doing in the wild?
- Least Concern
- Near Threatened
- Vulnerable
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered (this animal)
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Critically Endangered
At extremely high risk of disappearing from the wild.
See the IUCN Red List assessment · The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021.3
Amazing facts
-
Every California condor alive today comes from just 22 birds.
All the California condors alive today are descended from 22 birds that were taken into captivity in the 1980s.
Every living California condor descends from the 22 birds brought into captivity by 1987 in a controversial but successful breeding program.
-
A condor can go a week or more without eating.
California condors can survive one to two weeks without food, and their crop can hold about 1.4 kilograms of meat.
With a crop holding about 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms), condors may eat only every two or three days and can survive one to two weeks without food.
-
Explorers Lewis and Clark saw condors long ago.
When Lewis and Clark explored the Pacific Northwest in 1805, they found California condors there.
Lewis and Clark recorded condors in the Pacific Northwest in 1805; a released flock now flies in that region again.
-
Most condors wear a big tag on their wing.
Most wild condors carry a large tag on the wing and a radio transmitter, so biologists can follow them.
Released condors carry vinyl wing tags and radio or GPS transmitters, letting biologists find nests, check health and recover birds that die.
Words to know
- scavenger
- an animal that eats the bodies of animals that have already died
- captive breeding
- raising animals in zoos or breeding centers to increase their numbers
- reintroduce
- to release animals back into a place where they used to live
- lead poisoning
- illness caused by swallowing the metal lead
- crop
- a pouch in a bird's throat where food is stored
- critically endangered
- at extremely high risk of disappearing from the wild
Discovery challenge
-
How many California condors were left in the 1980s?
How many California condors were left in the 1980s?
How many California condors remained when the population was lowest in the 1980s?
- 22
- 2,000
- 200,000
Show the answer
22
Only 22 were left. Now there are more than 600!
Only 22 were left. Captive breeding raised the number to 607 by the end of 2025.
The population fell to 22 birds, all taken into captivity by 1987; every living condor descends from them.
-
What makes many condors sick?
What is the biggest danger to California condors today?
What is the leading known cause of death in wild California condors?
- Tiny bits of lead in their food
- Eating too many vegetables
- Snow on the cliffs
Show the answer
Tiny bits of lead in their food
Bits of lead from bullets can be in their food. Helpers give sick condors medicine.
Lead from bullet fragments in carcasses. Biologists test condors' blood and treat sick birds, and lead-free bullets help.
Lead poisoning from ammunition fragments: the US Fish and Wildlife Service counts it as the cause of half the wild deaths with a known cause from 1992 through 2025.
-
How do condors find food?
How do California condors find food?
Which sense do California condors mainly use to locate carcasses?
- By smell
- With their eyes
- By hearing
Show the answer
With their eyes
They look down from the sky with sharp eyes.
They find food by sight, often by spotting other scavengers at a carcass.
Sight, not smell: they often watch for other scavengers already gathered at a carcass.
-
How many eggs does a condor lay?
How many eggs does a California condor lay at a time?
What is the California condor's clutch size?
- One
- Four
- Ten
Show the answer
One
Just one egg.
Just one egg, and most pairs do not nest every year.
A single egg per nesting attempt, usually every one to two years, which keeps recovery slow.
Places where you might see it
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Watch
Country
United States
The United States is a large country in North America made of 50 states, from icy Alaska to the warm islands of Hawaii. It has the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi River and Yellowstone, and about 342 million people live there.
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Watch
Country
Mexico
Mexico is a large country in southern North America, between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. It has smoking volcanoes, ancient cities built by the Maya and other peoples, and about 132 million people, many of them in and around Mexico City.
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Watch
Natural wonder
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a huge, steep-sided canyon in Arizona carved by the Colorado River. It is about 447 kilometers long and, on average, 1.6 kilometers deep, and its walls show layers of rock almost two billion years old.
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Bald eagle
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Golden eagle
The golden eagle is one of the largest and fastest birds of prey in North America, and it lives across much of the Northern Hemisphere. It soars over mountains and open country on wings more than two meters wide and dives at tremendous speed to catch rabbits, hares and ground squirrels.
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Country
United States
The United States is a large country in North America made of 50 states, from icy Alaska to the warm islands of Hawaii. It has the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi River and Yellowstone, and about 342 million people live there.
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Watch
Country
Mexico
Mexico is a large country in southern North America, between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. It has smoking volcanoes, ancient cities built by the Maya and other peoples, and about 132 million people, many of them in and around Mexico City.
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Whooping crane
The whooping crane is the tallest bird in North America, snowy white with a red cap and black wingtips. In 1941 only about 21 were left. After decades of careful protection, scientists estimated about 540 cranes from the wild flock that flies between Canada and Texas in its main Texas winter home in 2025–2026.
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Watch
Natural wonder
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a huge, steep-sided canyon in Arizona carved by the Colorado River. It is about 447 kilometers long and, on average, 1.6 kilometers deep, and its walls show layers of rock almost two billion years old.
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Adélie penguin
The Adélie penguin is a medium-sized penguin, about 70 centimeters tall, with a black back, a white front and a bright white ring around each eye. It breeds in summer on rocky, ice-free ground all around Antarctica, building nests of pebbles, and spends the winter far out at sea among the pack ice.
For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Describe how the California condor's body suits a soaring scavenger.
- Tell the story of the condor's recovery using real dates and the 2025 population count.
- Explain calmly how lead from ammunition harms condors and what people do to prevent it.
- Explain why a slow life cycle makes recovery slow.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why was it a hard decision to take the last wild condors into captivity?
- How can hunters, ranchers and scientists work together to protect condors?
- Why do scavengers matter in an ecosystem?
Try at home or in class
- Draw a number line from 22 to 607 and mark the recovery dates from this page.
- Measure 2.8 meters on the floor with tape and lie down beside it to compare with a condor's wings.
Key vocabulary: scavenger, captive breeding, reintroduce, lead poisoning, crop, critically endangered
Where these facts come from
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Gymnogyps californianus (California Condor), Red List global assessment 2020 , IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- California Condor Recovery Program: 2025 Annual Population Status , US Fish and Wildlife Service
- Pinnacles Condor Recovery Program , US National Park Service, Pinnacles National Park
- California Condor overview , Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds
- California Condor identification , Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds
- California Condor life history , Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds
- Condor , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 24, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.