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Rare California condor soars near Dolores

Fierce bird missing from Grand Canyon
California condors are one of the rarest birds in the world. The National Park Service says the bird’s wingspan is up to 9½ feet and they can weigh up to 23 pounds. This condor was spotted Thursday near Dolores.

Mesa Verde National Park Seasonal Ranger Franz Carver spotted a California condor on Thursday, in the Summit Ridge area, south of Dolores.

Carver thought it was a turkey vulture until he downloaded the photographs and saw the tag. It turns out, N8, also know as bird 680, is a 2-year-old male from Grand Canyon National Park. He was listed in February by the park as “missing and feared dead.”

Carver immediately informed the Grand Canyon National Park and Janice Stroud-Settles, the park’s wildlife biologist.

“It was pretty exciting to hear he made it over to Colorado,” Stroud-Settles said. “We’ve heard reports of our birds in Colorado before, but we have never had photographic proof.”

Carver, who lives near Reno, Nevada, in the off season, said he drives around looking for birds on his days off. He works at the Mesa Verde National Park Visitor’s Center.

“This is the most exciting bird I have seen,” he said.

When he downloaded the pictures, Carver said he was shaking and couldn’t believe it. But it was the large tag that confirmed it.

“When I first saw him, I thought he was a turkey vulture, but I kept saying to myself, ‘No, he is too big,’” Carver said.

Stroud-Settles said the true lifespan of a California condor is between 60 and 70 years, but the park has never had any live that long. They are the longest-living bird in the world. Their population declined because of poaching, poisoning and habitat destruction.

“They come and go between Arizona and Utah and now Colorado,” Stroud-Settles said. “Occasionally we do hear of sightings (in Colorado). We rarely get the pictures to go with it, so we are sure.”

N8 was released in the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument near the Grand Canyon last June. He was raised in the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

Stroud-Settles said few of their birds have GPS transmitters, but N8 does have one; he apparently went out of contact.

“It was exciting to hear they’ve made it over to Colorado. I’m pretty sure they have made it to Colorado before. Some say there have been reports of them all the way up to Wyoming,” she said.

Chris Parish, condor field project supervisor with the Peregrine Fund, monitors the condors and was happy to learn about N8’s spotting.

“Obviously that is great news,” he said, over the phone.

Parish said the birds have been spotted as far north as the Flaming Gorge in Wyoming. He has seen juvenile condors venture out before. They tend to wander, he said.

“We’ve had them in your neck of the woods before, but it’s not common,” he said.

The California condor is the largest North American land bird, with a wing-span of 9½ feet. They went extinct in the wild in 1987 and were reintroduced in northern Arizona and southern Utah after being bred in captivity. They are the rarest bird species, numbering at 425 today.

The Grand Canyon population was first introduced in 1996. There are currently 71 birds in the park.



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