Andean Condor

Vultur gryphus

Wingspan

270–320cm

Body length

100–130cm

Weight

11,000–15,000g

Profile

Life expectancy
Clutch size: 1 egg
Global status
Activity
Migration

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

Plumage

Eyes

Legs & feet

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.

Diet

Prey examples

Carrion

The Andean Condor is a pure scavenger. In the Andes it uses carcasses of guanacos, llamas, cattle and sheep, and on the Pacific coast also dead sea lions and whales. It does not kill prey, but occasionally raids seabird colonies.

Occasional

Seabird eggs

Hunting

Scavenging Search flight

The Andean condor uses updraughts along mountain slopes and soars at great height over wide areas. It finds carcasses by sight, also watching other scavengers. At a find, its size lets it displace smaller vultures.

Distribution

Range

Andes & Pacific coast of South America

Habitat

High Andean mountains with cliffs and open grassland, plus coastal deserts and sea cliffs on the Pacific, where it searches for washed-up carcasses.

Open mountain slopes with rocks and alpine meadows — Mountains

Rocky coast with open sea and wooded slopes — Coasts