California condors are the largest birds in North America. They may weigh up to 25 pounds and have wingspans of 9 1/2 feet. California condors have bare heads and necks, dull gray-black feathers, and blunt claws. They have a triangle-shaped patch of white, visible only when airborne, that adorns the underside of their wings. California condors can soar on warm thermal updrafts for hours, reaching speeds of more than 55 miles per hour and altitudes of 15,000 feet. Normally, California …showed first 75 words of 756 total…

…showed last 75 words of 756 total…breeding them as quickly as possible before the wild population declined further. Bringing immature, non- breeding birds into captivity would speed up the time it would take to create a viable, breeding population. The Andean condor, a closely related species that inhabits areas in South America, had bred successfully in captivity and some captive-born birds have been released in the wild, giving biologists good reason to be optimistic about similar success for the California condor.