Biologists say a pair of California condors may be tending an egg in northern California for the first time in more than a century.
Biologists with the Yurok Tribe’s Northern California Condor Restoration Program say the behavior of a 6-year-old breeding pair suggests the birds are incubating a new egg.
The two were among the first condors released in northern California in 2022 and have since built a nest within an old-growth redwood.
Scientists say they’re trying not to get their hopes up and cannot confirm the existence of the egg because the nest is so remote.
But the condors’ behavior suggests an egg could hatch in late March or Early April.
“This is a huge moment for our Northern California flock,” says Chris West, the Northern California Condor Restoration program manager and Yurok Wildlife Department senior biologist. “It is important to remember that these are wild birds. We trap them occasionally for health monitoring, but if they nest, and how successful they are, is totally up to them, with as little interference from us as possible.”
The Northern California Condor Restoration Program is a collaboration between the Yurok Tribe, for whom condors are culturally important, the National Park Service and other state and federal agencies.
The critically endangered big birds once took flight throughout the West and Pacific coast before nearly going extinct due to poisoning from lead ammunition.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began releasing condors back into the wild in the 1990s in northern Arizona.
Now about 350 birds call parts of Arizona, Utah, California, Oregon, and Mexico home.
