Back from the brink of extinction, California condors are showing up in greater numbers across the Southwestern United States.
Case in point: A flock of at least five, and perhaps six, condors was captured on video roosting near a wildfire detection camera atop Henrietta Peak, west of the Central Valley near Hollister, on Wednesday.
All of the birds were tagged, indicating they were part of the controlled breeding program run by the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and other conservation groups.
“This popular spot had both immature and mature condors roosting earlier this week,” managers at ALERTCalifornia, which operates the wildfire camera network, wrote.
Earlier in August, two condors were spotted on another ALERTCalifornia camera in the Bear Valley Springs area southeast of Bakersfield.
California condors were on the verge of extinction in the 1980s when conservationists took a risk and brought all known remaining birds into captivity for a breeding program.
Today, there are more than 600 condors, with roughly 400 flying free in California, Arizona, Utah and Baja California. With a wingspan of about 10 feet, they are the largest land birds in North America.
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