Condor Bird

A Conservation Success: Probably the most famous species of condor is the California condor, its celebrity stemming from the fact that it is highly endangered. The largest flying bird in North America, the California condor had by the 1980s nearly disappeared. Through the efforts of the California Condor Recovery Program, a nucleus of 27 birds captured in the 1980s has grown to about 170 individuals, 40 of which have been released into the wild.

Change of Diet: This mostly black bird with white wingtips once fed on bison and pronghorns, but when those populations were depleted by overhunting in the 19th century, food became hard to come by. Today, captive-bred condors released into the wild feed on dead cattle and deer.