The California condor is the largest flying bird in North America. Its wings may stretch nearly 10 feet from tip to tip. When in flight, this huge bird glides on air currents to soar as high as a dizzying 15,000 feet.

Condors were sacred birds to the Native Americans who lived in the open spaces of the U.S. West. The captive breeding of this critically endangered species is one of the most well known efforts to revive an animal on the verge of extinction.

Fossil records show that the birds once occupied an expansive range that extended as far east as Florida and New York. They now only live in a fraction of that range—perhaps because of the loss of