Condor Watch Talk

Population increases?

  • wreness by wreness moderator

    Some of the birds have had several chicks and I gather that the 'norm' is 1 a year. Some of the Bios reflect this, and the Mom Bird has a chick every year. Then it will skip 2 or 3 years, even though it will have the same mate when it does have a chick again. Does this mean the pair didn't mate that year? Or that the egg wasn't viable? I haven't seen a "couple" in a photo together nor a parent - kid. How do the mated pair find each other if they don't hang out on a regular basis? Or do they? TY 😃

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  • myraf by myraf scientist

    Hi wreness! Great question! Lets see, condors only can raise one chick per year and do sometimes skip a year. Besides deciding to skip a year (being a parent is hard work!). many other things might affect a bird raising a chick: if their mate died, if the egg failed (although, if the condor field crews can reach a nest they will check the egg and if the egg is not viable they will swap it out for a viable zoo laid egg), or if the chick died post hatching. The mates do tend to hang out together - you should see a pair in a photo at some point! They also tend to use the same nest site year after year. As for how they recognize each other, i don't know, but they do form long-term pair bonds that last for many years so they have some way of telling who is who. Also, pair bonds might break if one of the birds is lead poisoned and sent to the zoo for treatment - there have been cases where a bird's mate will hook up with someone else while they are being cared for at the zoo.

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  • wreness by wreness moderator

    ...." there have been cases where a bird's mate will hook up with someone else while they are being cared for at the zoo." Well, I am quite shocked to hear that 😄

    It's not as if you're going to find a better looking Condor, you know? Thanks for the info. Interesting!

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  • inaspin by inaspin

    Guess it's a case of "love the one you're with", eh?
    On a related subject - do condors nest in trees, on rock ledges or where? I've seen eagle nests on top of telegraph poles in the desert.

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  • vjbakker by vjbakker scientist

    Condors nest in caves and rock ledges, and on the Central CA coast they sometimes nest in large tree cavities.

    There are many great images and videos of condor nest caves at the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Facebook page, called Condor Cave. Check them out here: https://www.facebook.com/TheCondorCave

    And a National Geographic article about condors nesting in a redwood nest, here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0330_060330_condors.html

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  • inaspin by inaspin

    Are there any indications that the increased availability of food sources at the camera traps has been affecting the breeding rate of the other visitors to the sites? It occurred to me that there may be more coyotes at least than before the programme started. And what might it be doing for the ubiquitous ravens!

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  • myraf by myraf scientist

    What a great question! As far as I know we have no information on how many non-condors use these sites and what this supplemental food source might be doing for reproductive rates and, more generally, population health. We wanted to include these 'other animals' on Condor Watch to start gathering the data to look at questions like these. And that is why, although I know counting ravens is ...well... not always the most stimulating of tasks, we think this information is important.

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  • inaspin by inaspin

    Hey - I love the ravens - well perhaps that's a bit strong . . . but they do have attitude. I asked because when we get a good rainfall year in Australia all sorts of animals get to breeding up. Extra food = extra offspring. Particularly mice (in plague proportions) and the 'roos. Some birds will even breed twice in a season. Thanks for the answer.

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