A California Condor showed up in Los Alamos New Mexico on Friday. As Arizona Public Radio’s Justin Regan reports, it’s the first confirmed case of a condor in the state in recorded history.
The bird is a two year old male and one of the 71 California Condors in the greater Grand Canyon area. It had gone missing and was feared dead over the winter, but was then found and tagged with a GPS transmitter in mid-March.
Two weeks ago, the condor left its usual area and traveled to Cortez Colorado, where it became the first confirmed sighting in that area. Eddie Feltes is the Field Manager for the California Condor Recovery Project. He says condors often travel long distances.
“These guys can travel normally, 100 to 200 miles a day, throughout their area. We’ve had birds fly up to Flaming Gorge Wyoming before. That was as a group and they took a longer time to get up there, and then they made their way back,” said Feltes.
For now, this condor is assumed to be traveling solo. It will most likely forage for food with other carrion birds such as Turkey Vultures and Ravens.
