Several years ago, Dana and I spent an afternoon in Central Park attending the Falconry Extravaganza sponsored by the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. (How cool is it that you can spend an Autumn afternoon watching birds of prey in the middle of New York City?)
There were owls and hawks and falcons, and falconers with their birds. So many of falconers' raptors took off to chase pigeons on the other side of the park that Dana started calling the event the "Falcon Release Extravaganza."
The highlight of the event was at the end, when a van backed up to the makeshift arena. A giant bird hopped out and spread its wings. The bird was Vidor, the Andean Condor, and he was, without a doubt, the tallest living bird I'd ever seen. And maybe the ugliest. Like many scavengers, Vidor doesn't have feathers on his head, to prevent bacteria from carrion from settling in a place the bird can't preen.
But what he lacks in looks, he makes up for with grace. His handlers gave him a raw egg as a treat. Vidor handled the egg very gently before cracking it to eat the contents. Andean Condors, like many other scavenger birds, are extremely clean. After feeding they'll bathe; if there are no resources available where they are, they'll travel. They use the white ruffs to keep their necks and heads warm.
One more nice thing about condors... they're somewhat polite, in that they'll wait until you're dead before they eat you.
For a finale, Vidor's handlers had him take a running start and fly over the bleachers. He has a 9-foot wingspan. Amazing.
This drawing isn't of Vidor. It's doodled from a photo on San Diego Shooter's Flickr photostream.
