17 Facts About California condor

California condor is a New World vulture and the largest North American land bird.

The California condor is a scavenger and eats large amounts of carrion.

The condor is a significant bird to many Californian Native American groups and plays an important role in several of their traditional myths.

California condor was described by English naturalist George Shaw in 1797 as Vultur californianus; Archibald Menzies collected the type specimen "from the coast of California" during the Vancouver expedition.

California condor is the sole surviving member of Gymnogyps and has no accepted subspecies.

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Adult California condor is a uniform black with the exception of large triangular patches or bands of white on the underside of the wings.

Female California condor is smaller than the male, an exception to the rule among birds of prey.

Middle toe of the California condor's foot is greatly elongated, and the hind one is only slightly developed.

At the time of human settlement of the Americas, the California condor was widespread across North America; condor bones from the late Pleistocene have been found at the Cutler Fossil Site in southern Florida.

Five hundred years ago, the California condor roamed across the American Southwest and West Coast.

Significant past damage to the California condor population has been attributed to poaching, lead poisoning, DDT poisoning, electric power lines, egg collecting, and habitat destruction.

Unanticipated deaths among California condor populations occurred due to contact with golden eagles, lead poisoning, and other factors such as power line collisions.

In October 2010, the wild condor population in its name state of California reached 100 individuals, plus 73 wild condors in Arizona.

In early 2007, a California condor laid an egg in Mexico for the first time since at least the 1930s.

Younger birds of the central California population are seeking to expand their territory, which could mean that a new range expansion is possible for the more than 60 condors flying free in central California.

The California condor was seen for the first time in nearly 50 years in Sequoia National Park in late May 2020.

The Chumash tribe of Southern California tell that the condor was once a white bird, but it turned black when it flew too close to a fire.