pink strip down breast
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Shiphrah
ACW0001huc -- Juvenile in distance (center right) has a clear pink (skin?) stripe down the center of its breast. Seen it once before & commented on it. Is this normal?
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Shiphrah
another pink stripe, much clearer ACW0004b3f
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wreness
moderator
Hi!
There were replies on your photo ACW0004b3f but I'll post it here, too, since it's a great question!
This is known as the "crop", a stomach-like storage pouch of muscle that fills with food when the condors eat (other birds have this, too). It expands like a balloon, much like a chipmunk stashes seeds in its cheeks for later when they eat. Condors eat every 2-3 days and can - 3-4 pounds of food at a time. The crop softens the food until they pass it to their gizzard which then grinds up and disgests the food - more like an actual stomach.
Because the crop is red it's easy to see against the condor's feathers. Here's another great pic of one!
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myraf
scientist
thanks Wreness! As an FYI, sometimes the condor field biologists mark down how full the crop is (typically on a numerical scale such as 1 to 3) to identify if the birds were actually eating at the carcass free-food buffet or just an observer. .
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wreness
moderator
That's an interesting addition! Some of these photos show the most incredibly huge crops, as Shiphrah found, and some don't have crops visibly showing but are wet with ..uh...goop and guts so you know they ate; they just weren't hogs about it. Others you see standing off to the side for hours until everyone is gone and then delicately pick at the left overs. Such personalities! I love these birds 😃
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wreness
moderator
Shiphrah - Here's a great crop photo for you courtesy of Canmore1919. This is one of the biggest crops I've seen on here. Gross! (and cool!)
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