- Life expectancy
Identification
A huge black soarer with flat, plank-like wings, deeply fingered primaries and a white neck ruff. Males have a fleshy comb on the bare head; young birds are plain greyish brown.
Colours
Male
Black plumage with a white downy neck ruff and large white areas on the upperwings. The head and neck are bare and reddish; the male has a fleshy comb on the crown.
Behaviour
Andean Condors take off in the morning from sunlit slopes and use thermals and slope updrafts to soar hundreds of kilometres with minimal effort. Fixed hierarchies apply at carcasses and roosts.
Breeding & rearing
They breed in rock niches at high altitude, without a proper nest. The egg is incubated for just under two months, and the young bird stays with its parents for up to a year, so pairs often breed only every second year.
