Catching insects in their mouths, diving bombing at 180 mph, spending five years over the open ocean, fighting someone much bigger — birds can be pretty darn awesome. There’s nothing scientific or methodical about this post, we just want to highlight some of the really awesome things that birds do. This is far from a [...]

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The Los Angeles Times walks back its description of California Condors:
Pinnacles National Monument: In Monday’s LATExtra section, an article about legislation that would elevate Pinnacles National Monument to national park status referred to California condors as predators. The birds, which do not eat live prey, are scavengers, not predators.
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California Senator Barbara Boxer yesterday introduces legislation to make Pinnacles National Monument into a National Park. The park is known for its population of California Condors. (photo by Bryce Edwards)
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The California Condor hasn’t been seen on the North Coast of California in a long time, but one Native American tribe is hoping to bring them back. Representatives of the Yurok Tribe say that the condor is an important part of their culture, a part that was lost when the condor faded from the region [...]

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Experts from Audubon California recently joined the Tejon Ranch Conservancy and Western Field Ornithologists to survey Tejon Ranch for Purple Martins. Check out the video:

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While researchers are pleased that California Condors breeding in the Big Sur area have begun feeding on seal carcasses, an increased incidence of thin eggs shells has them concerned that the birds might be getting DDT from this food source. Many of the seals in Big Sur breed in Southern California, where industrial DDT contamination is [...]

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Not that we really needed more proof, but a recent study released this week shows even greater proof that lead poisoning of the endangered California Condor can be linked directly to the use of lead ammunition. Researcher Myra Finkelstein, an environmental toxicologist at UC Santa Cruz, found that the isotopes of the lead in condors [...]

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The Oregon Zoo is celebrating the successful births of three California Condors at its facility this spring. Always good news to see more California Condors in the world — baby steps away from the brink of extinction.
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We’re not really sure when the Peregrine Fund produced this video about the dangers of lead ammunition to birds such as the California Condor and Bald Eagle, but with the recent poisoning of the Condor chick in Pinnacles National Monument, the information is certainly pertinent today. The video focuses on efforts to reduce hunting with [...]

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The recent lead poisoning of the celebrated California Condor chick at Pinnacles National Monument shows that the endangered species, despite the recent lead ban in its range, faces serious challenges to recovery, says an editorial in today’s Sacramento Bee. Lead is the single biggest threat to the bird’s survival, and obviously we have more work [...]

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With the announcement that the first California Condor chick to hatch in the Pinnacles National Monument in more than 100 years has been removed from its nest for treatment for lead poisoning, more attention will be focused on the dangers of lead in the environment, particularly lead from spent ammunition. Researchers from the Monument and the [...]

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Great news out of Pinnacles. That egg that we’ve been watching has hatched!
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Folks at Pinnacles National Monument are reporting their first condor egg in 100 years. Great news. Great to see the condor bouncing back.
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A great article in Audubon Magazine highlights the terrific research and conservation work being done on Tejon Ranch since a major conservation agreement protected up to 240,000 acres of the property in 2008.
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