Life History of the California Condor Part III. Home Life of the Condors

Abstract

N the issue of THE CONDOR for November, 1906, I gave an account of finding the nest and egg of a California Condor ( Gymnogyps californianus) in the mountains of southern California, which was accomplished thru the help of Mr. Joseph Grinnell and Mr. Walter P. Taylor. In the last issue, January, 1908, I dealt with the historical data and range of the California Condor. Most of the material used was supplied me thru the kindness of Mr. W. Lee Chambers, who has spent years in collecting this data. In the present paper I shall continue the observations Mr. Bohlman and I made at the condor's nest, and tell something of the home life of these birds. From what we knew of the nesting habits of the California Condor, we could not tell whether the old birds would be shy and hard to photograph, or whether they would show fight while we were working at their home. On April 11, 1906, we made another trip to the condor's cave. While ascending the steep slope to the nest, a large bowlder was accidentally loosened and narrowly missed taking the camera man along as it dropped into the canyon with a loud report. The next moment, the old condor, aroused from her nest, flapped to her perch in the dead tree directly over our heads. We watched and waited, hoping she would return to the nest. But after about fifteen minutes, she raised her wings, hooked her bill about the stump, parrot fashion, and climbed to a higher perch. We crawled on up behind a cover of rocks to get a picture. While fixing the camera, I looked up and the old male was just alighting beside his mate on the dead tree. We crouched down to watch. If the birds saw us, they paid no attention to our presence. The mother edged along the limb and put her head under his neck. Then she nosed him as if asking to be fed, but he responded rather coldly by moving away and she followed. This crowded him out where the limb was