Welcome to the Oregon Zoo's Condor Recovery Program
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History of the California Condors
California Condors in Oregon
On October 28, 1805, Lewis and Clark spotted a huge bird near the junction of Wind River andthe Columbia River. In their journal, they call it a "Vulture of the Columbia. Another journal entry, a few days later notes “These Buzzards are much larger than any of their Species or the largest Eagle.”
A month later, a member of the expedition killed one of the birds as it feasted on the carcass of a beached whale. The detailed description in their journal entry for that day includes measurements of wing span, and the lengths of it’s neck, toe nails and tail feathers, leaving no doubt that the bird was what we now call a California condor.
The explorers noted several other condor sightings as they proceeded toward the Pacific Ocean. They reported the condor was "not rare" near the mouth of the Columbia River on November 30, 1805. On February 16, 1806, they obtained a live condor specimen and thoroughly examined it. Copious notes in their journal note a 9' 2" wingspan, red head, and whitish patches under the wings. The explorers who brought the bird to Lewis and Clark mentioned that it barked like a dog when they approached it. On March 28, 1806, their journals mention another interaction with condors: “… men who had been sent after the deer returned and brought in the remnant which the vultures and Eagles had left us; these birds had devoured 4 deer in the course of a few hours.”
Other early explorers wrote of condors as well. David Douglas shot a pair of condors near Multnomah Falls (about 30 miles east of Portland) in 1828. Early ornithologist, J. G. Cooper, described the species feeding on dead salmon along the Columbia River. In 1827, harsh spring weather killed many horses at Fort Vancouver, Washington. Condors were drawn in large numbers to the morbid buffet.
Despite the numbers of condors seen by early visitors to the Northwest, they were no-match for the guns and poisons of newly arriving settlers. By 1850, they were very rare. The last reliable report was a sighting near Drain in 1904.
Natural History of California Condors
| Classification: | California Condor, Gymnogyps californianus, and a member of the family Cathartidae. |
| Range: | During the Pleistocene Era, which ended about 10,000 years ago, the condor’s range extended across much of North America. When the pioneers arrived, condors ranged along the Pacific coast from British Columbia south through Baja California, Mexico. Lewis and Clark commented that condors were plentiful in the lower Columbia River. By 1940, the range was reduced to the coastal mountains of southern California. Today, condors are being reintroduced into the mountains of southern California, the central California coast and near the Grand Canyon in Arizona. |
| Habitat: | California Condors require large areas of remote country for foraging, roosting, and nesting. They roost on large trees or isolated rocky outcrops and cliffs. Nests are placed in isolated shallow caves and rock crevices. Foraging habitat includes open grasslands and oak savanna foothills that support populations of large mammals such as deer and cattle. |
| Description: | Males and females are similar in appearance. Adults have a mostly bald head and neck with the skin in shades of pink, red, orange, yellow, and light blue. Feathers are mostly black but the birds have white underwing linings. The California Condor has a wingspan of about 9.5 feet. The bird’s beak is long, sharp, and powerful. |
| Life Span: | The oldest California Condor in captivity was born in 1966. Scientists believe that condors in the wild live to about the age of 40. |
| Breeding: | California Condors reach sexual maturity between 5 and 7 years of age. Males perform a highly ritualized courtship display in front of females. Graceful acrobatic flights between mates strengthen their bonds. Condor pairs stay together over successive seasons. A female will lay a single pale aqua-colored egg. Parents alternate in incubating the egg, each one often staying with the egg for up to several days at a time. The chick hatches after 54 to 58 days of incubation. The parents share duties in feeding and warming the chick. The chick is dependent on its parents for one to two years as it learns to forage and feed on its own. |
| Feeding: | Condors aren’t hunters. They are carrion eaters preferring to feed on the carcasses of large mammals including deer, marine mammals, and cattle. A condor will eat its fill and then may not feed for several days. Condors find their food by sight or by following other scavenging birds. |
| Bathing: | Condors are fastidious birds. After eating, they bathe in rock pools and will spend hours preening and drying their feathers. If no water is available, they will clean their heads and necks by rubbing them on grass, rocks, or tree branches. |
| Flight: | Holding in a steady horizontal position, California Condors can soar on warm thermal updrafts for hours, reaching speeds of more than 55 miles per hour and altitudes of 15,000 feet. Flights up to 150 miles in a day have been recorded. |
| Playing: | Condors are highly intelligent, social birds. They are inquisitive and often engage in play. Immature birds will entertain themselves at length with feathers, sticks, and grass (e.g. tug-of-war, tossing, chasing, and retrieving the objects). This activity is especially pronounced around water holes. |