Andean condors are found in the mountains of western South America. They live from Colombia and Venezuela in the north south to Tierra del Fuego.
Among birds of prey, the Andean condor has the longest wingspan. Its wings stretch up to about 3.2 meters (10.5 feet) from tip to tip. A big male weighs up to about 15 kilograms. That is 33 pounds. 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 (160 kilometers) without flapping its wings once. Condors can soar as high as about 5,500 meters (18,000 feet) above sea level.
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.
Andean condors do not build nests. The female lays one egg. The parents keep the egg warm for about two months before the chick hatches. Both parents care for a young condor for a year or more after it hatches. A young condor needs six years or more to become an adult. A pair usually raises just one chick every other year.
Four countries put the Andean condor on a national symbol: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador.
As of November 2026, scientists estimate that fewer than 7,000 adult Andean condors live in the wild. Condors are threatened over most of their range, mostly because of people.
As of November 2026, lead from bullets and bait put out to poison other animals are two of the main dangers. Condors raise young so slowly that their numbers recover slowly after losses.
Outside the nesting season, Andean condors often gather in groups. They rest and sleep on rocky cliffs.
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
- wingspan: wing size
- estimate: careful guess
- range: where it lives
- glide: soar smoothly
- recorders: tracking tools
