California Condor #46 Close Up In Flight
by Morris Finkelstein
Title
California Condor #46 Close Up In Flight
Artist
Morris Finkelstein
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
The California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus), also called California Vulture and Royal Vulture, is the largest flying bird in North America and is “Critically Endangered”. It measures about 23 pounds in weight and about 46 inches in length, with a wingspan of about 9.5 feet. By the late 1980’s, the California Condor was nearly extinct with the last birds housed at the San Diego Zoo and the Los Angeles Zoo, and none left in the wild. The primary reason for the decreasing numbers of this species was, and still is, that they feed only on the carrion (of mostly mammals), much of which is tainted with the poisonous lead of hunters’ ammunition. With aggressive breeding of Condors in captivity and release into the wild (with tags and radio transmitters), their numbers are increasing slowly.
Adults are mostly black with a long white triangle on the front half of the undersides of the wings. Adults’ heads and necks are mostly featherless, and colored yellowish to orange on the heads, and gray, red, yellow, and orange on the necks. Juveniles have blackish faces with downy dark feathers on their heads and necks. Condors usually have strong pair bonds lasting years with mutual grooming, courtship displays, and breeding. A mating pair will produce a single egg about every other year and take turns incubating the egg. The chicks’ age at first flight is about 5 months. Young Condors are sexually ‘immature’ for about 6 years and begin breeding between 6 years and 8 years of age. While the natural life expectancy of a Condor is 60-70 years, the actual life expectancy in the wild is far lower due to a high mortality rate. As of 2014, there were 200 California Condors in captivity and 232 in the wild in California, Utah, and Arizona.
California Condor #46 was photographed in flight at Big Sur (Seal Point Beach), in California, on 7-20-2021. I used a Nikon D850 camera body and a Nikon 500mm f/4.0E PF ED VR telephoto lens to capture this image. Settings: 1/3200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000. Many thanks to FAA photographers Jurgen Lorenzen, Mark Miller, and R. Christopher Vest, to Henry Detwiler, and to Cathy Hamilton at the Ventana Wildlife Society, for suggestions about where to locate California Condors; thanks to my wife Debbie for patiently joining this adventure of seeing and photographing a "critically endangered" life bird.
I am honored that my photograph was featured in the Fine Art America groups:
Pure Nature Photography, 8-9-2021
USA Photographers Only, 8-11-2021
The Outdoor Photographer, 8-11-2021
Gentlemen Club Art Group, 8-14-2021
Birds In Flight, 8-15-2021
10 Plus, 8-15-2021
Your Very Best Photography, 8-16-2021
FAA Portraits - Birds, 8-20-2021
Wonder Of Wings, 8-22-2021
Just Perfect, 8-26-2021
Avian Photography, 9-2-2021
Wildlife One-A-Day, 10-11-2021
Birds In Focus, 10-17-2021
A Birding Group - Wings, 10-22-2021
Go Take A Hike Photography Group, 11-3-2021
Artwork Featuring Wildlife And The Great Outdoors, 9-19-2022
1000 Views, 9-26-2022
1000 Views Special Feature, 9-28-2022
Wisconsin Flowers And Scenery "Best of the Best" Special Feature, 5-24-2023
KEYWORDS: california condor #46 close up in flight, california condor, gymnogyps californianus, condor, vulture, family cathartidae, california vulture, royal vulture, scavenger, bird, avian, nature, natural, wild, wildlife, outdoors, critically endangered, endangered, wings, feathers, plumage, black, gray, dark, white, yellow, orange, red, huge, large, tags, radio transmitter, flight, flying, scavenging, west, western, summer, ecotourism, ecotravel, big sur, seal point beach, california, morris finkelstein, st. louis, missouri, photograph, digital, horizontal, action, portrait, close up, nikon d850, photography
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August 8th, 2021
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