Interestingly enough, the condor's domain is not one of distance, but of altitude. It is an updraft rider, buoyed aloft by strong currents that flow from the steep mountain slopes and coastal cliffs that comprise the bird's home terrain. Males, with their fleshy red or black crests and light brown eyes, are larger than their red eyes consorts, but both males and females are black with white collars and wing patches. Young condors are brown feathered, gaining their white highlights first and then, by eight years, their black feathers. Interesting Facts Andean condors can fly as high as 15,000 feet at speeds of nearly 35 miles per hour.
Condors only flap their wings during flight to gain or maintain speed or altitude.
More often then not, they glide. A condor would rather walk than fly one hundred yards to a clifftop, where it can get airborne without effort.