North America's largest land bird, with a wingspan reaching 3 m and a weight of up to 12 kg
California condor.
Nature · Birds
California condor
Critically Endangered · 607 birds, 392 wild (31 Dec 2025)
Gymnogyps californianus — Cathartidae
North America's largest land bird, a New World vulture with a wingspan of up to 3 m and a bald orange-pink head. It fell to 22 individuals by 1982, and on 19 April 1987 the last free-flying bird, AC-9, was trapped, leaving all 27 survivors in captivity. Captive breeding and releases from 1992 had raised the world total to 607 by the end of 2025, of which 392 were flying wild — though lead poisoning from ammunition remains the chief cause of death.
How to spot them
- ▸Enormous flat-winged soaring silhouette with white triangular patches on the underwing
- ▸A naked head, orange-pink to yellowish in adults, greyish-black in juveniles; a ruff of black feathers at the neck
- ▸Numbered patagial wing tags and often a radio or satellite transmitter — almost every wild bird is tracked
- ▸Soars on thermals with almost no flapping, covering 200 km or more in a day
- ▸Larger and flatter-winged than the turkey vulture, which holds its wings in a shallow V and rocks in flight
How to know it
On 19 April 1987 the last free-flying individual, AC-9, was trapped at Bitter Creek, leaving 27 alive, all in captivity
California condor — the low point of the recovery programme.
Every bird alive today descends from just 27 founders; the world total reached 607 at the end of 2025
California condor — US Fish and Wildlife Service population status.
Lead fragments from rifle ammunition in carcasses remain the main cause of death; chelation treatment is routine
California condor — lead poisoning.
In 2021 researchers confirmed two chicks produced by parthenogenesis from females housed with fertile males
California condor — facultative parthenogenesis at San Diego Zoo.
The Yurok Tribe returned the bird to the redwood coast of northern California in 2022 under the name prey-go-neesh
California condor — Northern California Condor Restoration Program.
A New World vulture whose genus name means 'naked vulture', it has no voice box and can only hiss and grunt
Gymnogyps californianus, the California condor.
Quick-fire facts
- •Wingspan 2.5–3.0 m; weight 8–12 kg; it may live 60 years
- •The population fell to 22 birds by 1982 and to nine free-flying birds by 1985; AC-9 was caught on 19 April 1987
- •Captive breeding began in 1987 at San Diego Wild Animal Park and Los Angeles Zoo; releases resumed in January 1992
- •US Fish and Wildlife Service: 607 birds at 31 December 2025, of which 392 were free-flying and 215 captive
- •IUCN Red List: Critically Endangered
- •Release sites include Pinnacles and Big Sur in California, Vermilion Cliffs in Arizona, Baja California in Mexico and the Yurok release site in Humboldt County
- •Highly pathogenic avian influenza killed 21 wild condors in Arizona and Utah in spring 2023, prompting the first vaccination of a wild bird species against HPAI
- •The extinct Pleistocene relative Teratornis merriami, from the La Brea tar pits, had a wingspan of about 3.8 m
- •Condors lay a single egg, often only every other year; managers 'double-clutch', removing the first egg so the pair lays again
Drill it — 9 cards
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Sources
- US Fish and Wildlife Service — California Condor Recovery Program: 2025 Annual Population Status