Condor bird size5/7/2023 ![]() ![]() When a condor stretches out its wings, the wing feathers look like outstretched fingertips. By gliding from thermal to thermal, a condor may need to flap its wings only once every hour. They use warm air currents (thermals) to help them gain altitude and soar through the sky. These huge birds are too heavy to fly without help. Condors can glide over large areas while using little energy. They also look for clues to their next meal, such as other raptors gathering in one area on the ground or circling in the sky. The sky's the limit. To find their food, Andean condors use their excellent eyesight and can spot a meal from high up in the air. Today, Andean condors are most often seen in Peru, Chile, and Argentina, although a reintroduction program is taking place in Colombia. They tend to stay away from human disturbance, causing their range decrease dramatically. When not scanning the landscape for a meal, the birds may roost in small groups, often stretching their enormous wings to catch some sun or preening.Īndean condors used to range in large numbers from the highlands of northern South America to the tip of Tierra del Fuego in the south. They nest in rocky crags and soar over open grasslands and lowland desert regions. These impressive birds live in the highest peaks of the Andes. Instead, they hiss, click, and grunt to communicate.įlying high. Juveniles have brown plumage and skin and don’t develop their adult coloring until they are about six years old.Īndean condors do not have a syrinx (similar to our larynx), so they cannot vocalize. As adults, both sexes have black plumage with white secondary feathers and white neck ruffles. The males keep the comb all their life, which makes it easy to tell the sex of an Andean condor chick as soon as it hatches. The females lack the comb and have red eyes. Males are usually larger than females and have a distinctive comb on top of their head, as well as a large neck wattle and yellow eyes. This bird of prey and its close cousin, the California condor, are part of the New World vultures, a group of birds more closely related to storks than to the vultures of Africa.Īndean condors are the only New World vultures to show sexual dimorphism. It flies majestically over the mountains and valleys of the Andes. ![]() Old bird from the New World. The Andean condor is the largest raptor in the world and the largest flying bird in South America. ![]()
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