The National Animal of Ecuador is the largest of all birds of prey.
It is one of the biggest of the flying birds, weighing as much as 20 to 25 pounds.
Adults can reach heights of four feet, with a wing span of up to 10 feet. Males are typically larger than females.
Andean condors are mostly black with a fluffy white collar around their neck and white patches along their wings. These birds have bald greyish red heads, and the males have a fleshy lump at the front of their heads called a carbuncle.
Their beaks are large and hooked, and they have large feet with sharp claws, allowing them to easily tear apart their meals. It is also the unofficial bird of the Andes Mountains.
The Andean Condor can soar for hours around the cliffs. It has excellent eyesight and is able to see its prey from very great heights. It is always alert to what is going on with other birds and is always ready to join in with other scavengers as they go after their prey such as llamas or stray sheep and cattle.
It can pick up on sick or wounded animals and will land and wait for the animal to die. Its powerful hooked bill is like a butcher's tool, but it cannot deal with a thick hide.
Sometimes a large group of condors will feed together on large carcasses, gorging themselves to the point where they cannot take off from flat ground. Food is often not around in the mountains and they have to make the most of each meal they find. Although most of its food consists of carrion (dead animals), the Andean condor will occasionally kill and eat live prey.
They breed every other year, in the spring time; they look for a mountain cave or a rock cleft. They have one egg and will rarely have two. The eggs are incubated by both parents for 54-58 days. They do not like their nesting disturbed.
Since they only have one chick every other year, their numbers are going down.
The Andean condor was placed on the Endangered Species List in 1973 and is in danger of becoming extinct due primarily to over hunting. Many farmers shoot these birds because they mistakenly believe the condors kill their livestock. Pesticide poisoning through the food chain has also hurt populations.
Thanks to the repopulation efforts of many zoos, the Andean condor is finally beginning to make a comeback.
