When it soars, the wings spread more than nine feet from tip to tip. Condors may weigh more than 20 pounds. The Andean condor of South America is even bigger than our California condor. Both are endangered species.
Condors can soar and glide for hours without beating their wings.
After rising thousands of feet overhead on air currents, California condors will glide long distances, sometimes at more than 55 miles per hour. From the air, they search for dead animals, like deer or cattle. Thousands of years ago, California condors lived in many parts of North America, from California and other Pacific states to Texas, Florida, and New York. In recent centuries, this large vulture was found by early explorers and settlers from British Columbia in Canada to Baja California in Mexico. As people settled the west, they often shot, poisoned, captured, and disturbed the condors, collected their eggs, and reduced their food supply of antelope, elk, and other large wild animals.