The Andean condor can soar for hours while barely flapping its giant wings
Charles Darwin watched Andean condors for half an hour without seeing one beat its wings. Modern flight recorders agree: these huge vultures flap only about 1 percent of the time they are airborne, riding thermals on wings that span up to 3.3 metres and have the largest surface area of any living bird.
By combined weight and wingspan the condor is the biggest flying bird alive and usually counted as the largest bird of prey. It is black with a white ruff at the neck and, especially in males, broad white wing patches. The nearly bare head, which may help sunlight and dry air keep it clean, flushes with emotion; a courting male's neck turns from dull red to bright yellow and swells as he hisses, clicks his tongue and dances. Unusually for a raptor, the female is the smaller sex, and she has deep red eyes where the male's are brown.
It is mainly a scavenger, searching open grassland and alpine slopes up to 5,000 metres for large carcasses such as deer or cattle. Its straight, blunt talons suit walking rather than gripping prey, and its hooked beak is built for tearing. Lacking a big breastbone to anchor powerful flight muscles, it is made for gliding, preferring high perches from which it can launch with little effort. Large gatherings sort themselves into a pecking order, with mature males on top.
Condors mature at five or six, pair for life and may live 50 years or more, sometimes over 70. A pair nests on a remote ledge and raises a single bluish-white egg, typically every second year, and both parents incubate it for 54 to 58 days. If an egg is lost the female lays another, a trait breeders use to double output by hand-rearing the first. Chicks fly at six months but stay with their parents until about two.
The name comes from the Quechua word kuntur, and five Andean nations, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia, treat the bird as a national symbol. Its range has shrunk since the early 19th century, and the IUCN rates it vulnerable, threatened by habitat loss and lead from hunters' carcasses.
Source: Andean condor
