Andean condors live high in the Andes mountains of South America. They can soar as high as about 5,500 meters above sea level. That is about 18,000 feet.

Among birds of prey, the condor has the longest wingspan. Its wings stretch up to about 3.2 meters from tip to tip. A big male weighs up to about 15 kilograms. A female weighs less.

A condor soars on rising air. It can glide a long way without using much energy. Scientists put recorders on wild condors. They found that the birds flap their wings only about 1 percent of the time they are in the air. In one study, a condor flew for about 5 hours. It flew more than 100 miles. That is 160 kilometers. It did not flap its wings once.

A condor uses its sharp eyesight to find food from high in the sky. It mostly eats the dead bodies of large animals, such as deer, cows and sheep. Condors that eat dead animals help reduce diseases such as anthrax and botulism.

Condors do not build nests. The female lays one egg. The parents keep the egg warm for about two months. Then the chick hatches. Both parents care for a young condor for a year or more after it hatches. A pair usually raises just one chick every other year. A young condor needs six years or more to become an adult.

Condors are found in the mountains of western South America. They live from Colombia and Venezuela in the north south to Tierra del Fuego.

Four countries put the condor on a national symbol. They are Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador.

As of November 2026, Andean condors are threatened over most of their range, mostly because of people.

A wild Andean condor can live about 50 years. As of November 2026, the oldest Andean condor known in a zoo lived to just under 80 years old, at Beardsley Zoo in Connecticut.

Words to know

• soar: glide high
• wingspan: wing size
• anthrax: a disease
• botulism: a disease
• glide: soar smoothly