#Andean condor wingspan skin#

Watch out.В Healthy adult condors have no natural predators and are vigilant when protecting their egg or chick. Although they are able to eat rancid meat, they prefer fresh food. These birds can consume more than 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms) of meat at one time, and may not be able to fly after such a large meal.ДЄt the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park, the Andean condors eatВ rats, rabbits, beef spleen, trout, and ground meat, depending on the day. After a condor eats, it rubs its head and neck back and forth across the ground to get all the вЂњcrumbsвЂќ off. Condors have a high resistance to harmfulВ bacteria, and their curved beak is good for tearing rotting flesh.Д«ut as strong and impressive as an Andean condorвЂ™s beak looks, it is not as strong as the beaks of other birds of prey. This keeps the head from getting too messy while buried in aВ carcass. This lifestyle isnвЂ™t for everyone, but it does have certain advantages-the food canвЂ™t fight back! Like most other vultures, condors have a featherless head. These вЂњfingertipsвЂќ let the condor make fine adjustments in flight, like wing flaps on an airplane.ДЄ meal to die for.В Like all vultures, Andean condors are scavengers and find most of their food after it is already dead. 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.В 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 mayВ roostВ in small groups, often stretching their enormous wings to catch some sun or preening.ДЄndean 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.ДЇlying high.

#Andean condor wingspan skin#

Juveniles have brown plumage and skin and donвЂ™t develop their adult coloring until they are about six years old.ДЄndean 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. ThisВ bird of preyВ 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.ДЄndean condors are the only New World vultures to showВ sexual dimorphism. It flies majestically over the mountains and valleys of the Andes.

Old bird from the New World.В The Andean condor is the largestВ raptorВ in the world and the largest flying bird in South America.