Back in March, I spent a few weeks in southeast Arizona soaking in the region’s natural beauty, vibrant culture, and birding hot spots. I have yet to compile my full bird list from the trip but can report that I logged six life birds: Common Black Hawk, Short-tailed Hawk, Zoned-tailed Hawk, Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, Hutton’s Vireo, and Olive Warbler.
Clockwise from upper left: Hutton’s Vireo, Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, Zone-tailed Hawk, Common Black Hawk, and Short-tailed Hawk. Olive Warblers were singing away but wouldn’t pose for the camera.
A major trip highlight was joining Sagebrush Steppeson for a day of birding with the fabulous Richard Fray, a renowned birding guide based in Rio Rico. Sage and I met up for two more birding rendezvous, at the Tubac HawkWatch site at Ron Morriss Park and a no-name road ~40 miles southwest of Tucson to look & listen for Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl (no luck). What a pleasure to meet this talented, kind, unassuming Kossack in person! Here’s hoping for future birding adventures with you, Sage!
Birding/photography pals Sagebrush Steppeson and giddy skulking around the Sonoran Desert for birds.
But all that is lead-in to today’s Chorus topic. For the long drive home to Montana, Mr. giddy and I chose a route that took us by Navajo Bridge in remote Coconino County, AZ. Navajo Bridge spans the Colorado River and the dramatic gorge of Marble Canyon, bordering the Navajo Nation and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. A few miles west lie the Vermillion Cliffs, the site of the initial 1996 reintroduction of captive, parent-reared California Condors to Arizona, establishing a second non-captive condor population (to southern California’s first). Our trip to Navajo Bridge was a pilgrimage of sorts, to actually see these remarkable, improbable birds in real life and pay respects to the visionaries that saved the California Condor from extinction.
Vicinity map of Navajo Bridge and Marble Canyon [zoom]
Looking up the Colorado River into Marble Canyon from Navajo Bridge. Condors recently nested on the cliff face to the right.
The last time I set eyes on a wild California Condor was 1982. I was an undergrad at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and tagged along with an ornithology grad student that summer to help photo-document condors from an observation site overlooking the southern San Joaquin Valley foothills, an important condor foraging area. At this date, condors were spiraling towards extinction, with only 22 individuals surviving in the wild. It was a forlorn yet strangely exhilarating duty to record the feather details, age-status, and behaviors of a species on the brink of extinction. I remember leaving the dry, dusty overlook each day with a solemn, heavy heart.
Adult California Condor (pink head) lifts off from its foraging spot in the southern San Joaquin Valley foothills, Summer 1982. Cattle grazing creates the terracing effect on the grassy slopes.
California Condors catch a thermal above the San Joaquin foothills, Summer 1982.
California Condor in foraging mode, Summer 1982.
Adult California Condor on the hunt for cattle or deer carrion, Summer 1982.
Adult California Condor banking in a box canyon, Summer 1982. These photos were scanned from faded, old slides. Apologies!
By 1982, the US Fish & Wildlife Service-led California Condor Recovery Program was ramping up its recovery efforts for “one of the world’s rarest and most imperiled vertebrate species”. The program’s ambitious, multi-pronged mission included establishing self-sustaining populations of condors within the historical distribution, addressing threats to condors in the wild, captive breeding, and release and monitoring of condors at select field sites.
Historic range of the California Condor in gray shading; current range in magenta shading; 1950s range in black shading. [zoom]
The accomplishments of the recovery program’s scientists and partners are astounding and probably represent the largest Endangered Species Act (ESA) recovery effort undertaken by our government. Here is an abbreviated list of California Condor Recovery Program milestones:
1982: Population in the wild dwindles to 22
1983: Captive breeding programs launch at Los Angeles Zoo & San Diego Wild Animal Park
1985: Population in the wild plummets to 9
1987: Last wild condor captured and placed into a captive breeding program
1992: The USFWS begins reintroducing captive-bred condors to the wild in California
1994: Birds are returned to captivity for program re-evaluation (birds were frequenting populated areas and colliding with power lines)
1995: Birds are released again after behavioral problems are corrected
1996: Condors are reintroduced in Arizona
1997: Condors are reintroduced in Big Sur, California
2003: Condors are reintroduced in Baja California, Mexico
2004: First successful hatch of a condor chick in the wild
2006: Free flying condors nest in central California for the first time in over a century
2008: More condors flying free in the wild than in captivity for the first time since program began
2017: The California Condor Cam goes live from Devils Gate; population reaches over 460
2022: Condors are reintroduced in Humbolt County, CA in partnership with the Yurok Tribe & National Park Service
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Forty years ago, I would not have bet on this outcome. Forty years ago, my pragmatic self (I was neither a cynic nor defeatist) thought condor genetics wouldn’t be robust enough, or lead poisoning and pollution were insurmountable, or zoo biologists wouldn’t be able to crack the condor’s reproductive code. I also thought it implausible the program would continue to be funded given partisan bickering over ESA laws/budgets and hostile administrations.
But the ESA, however bureaucratically clunky, has served California condors well, and ornithologists, geneticists, and conservationists continue to brilliantly apply their science to the recovery of this precious bird. Just look at the numbers from the most recent status report published by the California Condor Recovery Program:
Total world population = 561
Wild free-flying population = 344 (AZ/UT = 90; CA = 195; Northern CA = 11; Baja Mexico = 48)
Wild chicks fledged in 2023 = 14
Captive released to the wild = 27
Total captive population = 217
Yes, there are setbacks. Mortalities from lead poisoning (48% of all deaths) and disease remain high. In Spring 2023, an outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in the AZ/UT flock resulted in 21 deaths. But US Fish & Wildlife Service and partners quickly established an Incident Command Team and began a series of vaccine trials on captive condors. They have vaccinated all remaining condors in captivity and will start vaccinating wild condors in 2024. Adaptive management in action.
And so, forty years on — due to the perseverance and vigilance of a couple generations of conservationists — I get to marvel again at a free-flying flock of California condors at Navajo Bridge, some of which may be the direct descendants of the free-flying condors I saw decades ago from a dusty overlook in the southern San Joaquin Valley foothills.
California Condors are the largest flying landbird in North America. Adults weigh ~22 lbs and have a wingspan of 9-½ to 10 ft. [zoom]
Female Z5, age 4 years and 1 month, hatched at San Diego Wild Animal Park. Look at that beautiful compliment of wing and tail feathers. [zoom] Go to condorspotter.com to learn about each tagged condor, including sex, age, where hatched, parents, biological offspring, and biological siblings.
Z5 perched near the Navajo Bridge buttress. She still bears the black head of a juvenile and won’t reach sexual maturity until 6-7 years old. [zoom]
Condor 50 is a wild-born 2-year-old. A technician tracking the flock said it prefers to be by itself and is “socially awkward” like most condors its age. [zoom]
Soaking up the morning sun before the flyout. [zoom]
Gotta find that perfect perch. [zoom]
At about 10:30am, the flock of nine condors took to the air. [zoom]
Being eye-level with a 10-ft California Condor is a humbling experience! [zoom]
V3 finds a thermal and lifts rapidly. [zoom]
Dorsal view of V3 showing his lustrous feathers and that massive wingspan. [zoom]
Seven of the nine California Condors at Navajo Bridge soar the contours of a thermal. [zoom]
Thanks for joining today’s Dawn Chorus!
Please share your latest & greatest birding adventures!
