Worlds Ugliest Bird?

I know that people usually talk about cute little song birds, and the majesty of hawks and eagles, or the sport of game birds but no one ever seems to talk about the really "ugly" birds. California Condors are an endangered species of bird, they are gaining in numbers however, and are doing well because of help that the have received from captive breeding. California Condors have a wingspan of over 9 feet, so they are able to spread their wings and sail on the wind currents and soar over canyons and wide open spaces in the southwest of our United States without having to flap their wings very much. A condor can weigh up to 20 pounds and would be almost 4 feet tall if he were perched on a rock ledge or tree.


Condors are part of, and the largest of the Vulture family of birds and are scavengers. Like the turkey Vultures that we have in Wisconsin in the spring and summer, they often eat things that are already dead. California Condors can live up to 60 years, that is pretty old for a bird and represents a lot of dead things. The Condor’s diet consists of medium and large-sized dead mammals like cattle, sheep, deer, and horses in any state of decay. Condors may travel several hundred miles in search of food. Condors are almost entirely black and like our own Turkey Vulture have bald featherless heads. They often stick their heads into the dead bodies of animals...yuck. Their heads range in colors from pink and red to blue and orange.


Check out more at:
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-condor.html

A Turkey Vulture on Hwy KK