The mighty Andean condor \u2013 the heaviest bird of prey in the world and the raptor with the longest wingspan \u2013 needs little introduction, says Mike Dilger. Learn all about them in his expert guide – including where to see them <\/p>
The Andean condor is so revered across its range that it features on the national shields of four different countries: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador.<\/strong><\/p> Ecuador has gone a step further, placing the coat of arms on its flag. Here the condor, with its outstretched wings, is thought to symbolise power, greatness and strength.\u00a0<\/p> Learn all about this impressive bird in our export guide, including where to see Andean condors in the wild.<\/p> Adult Andean condors have principally dark plumage and black primaries, or \u2018fingers\u2019, which contrast to their startlingly white secondary flight feathers and white \u2018fluffy\u2019 neck collar. <\/p> They also possess naked, fleshy heads, presumably a hygienic adaptation that allows them to delve into animal carcasses without their plumage becoming overly soiled by innards.\u00a0<\/p> However it takes quite a while for an Andean condor to develop this look. By the time the single juvenile condor fledges from its home, its plumage will be smoky brown. Young birds then undergo a long, continual moult as their plumage darkens, but they still need an astonishing eight years before graduating to their parents\u2019 black and white. \u00a0 <\/p> Andean condors are the only New World vulture to display sexual dimorphism. The bigger males have a large, dark red comb, or caruncle, on the crown of the head, that surely plays a key role when the time comes for this sexually monogamous species to find its life-partner<\/a>.<\/p> <\/p> With a wingspan (for the record) maxing out at around 3.2m, and weighing up to 15kg the Andean condor is the heaviest bird of prey in the world and the raptor with the longest wingspan. It also stands an impressive 1.2 metres tall<\/p> As masters in the art of effortless soaring, it is up in the air where condors excel. Using a combination of wind gusts, currents of warm rising air and streams of air pushed upwards by cliffs and mountains, condors are able to spend hours on the wing, in a perennial hunt for carrion.<\/p> So efficient is this technique that equipment recently strapped to condors in Patagonia revealed that only one per cent of the birds\u2019 time aloft is spent flapping their wings \u2013 with this mostly occurring during take-off.\u00a0So natural is the Andean condor\u2019s soaring that one bird was found to have flown for five hours, covering a distance of 160km, without once flapping its wings.<\/p>What do Andean condors look like?<\/h2>
Andean condor size<\/h2>
What’s so special about the Andean condor’s flight?<\/h2>