California condor chick growing up

This video from California in the USA says about itself:

Condor Chick Goes “Wings Out” on a Sunny Morning in Devils Gate – Jun 27, 2017

The California Condor cam is a collaboration between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Santa Barbara Zoo, the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Thanks for watching!

From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the USA:

Devil’s Gate Condor Chick Growing Up

Now approaching 80 days old, the Devil’s Gate chick on the California Condor cam is growing up fast. Its juvenile plumage is starting to surface from under a cover of gray down. Soon the chick will be outfitted with a set of uniformly blackish feathers, tipped with hints of brown, white, and pale gray. The chick’s head is also changing from a fleshy pink to slate gray coloration that’s typical of a juvenile.

The condor chick’s physical appearance isn’t the only thing that’s changing. As chicks gets older, they spend more time exercising. Watch for more wing flapping, leaping about, and capturing and carrying away objects found around the nest. Older chicks also exhibit mock prey-capture behavior with their feet, stabbing out to clamp objects to the substrate without gripping them. The presence of this behavior in chicks, but not adults, suggests that the ancestors of condors may have had at least partially predatory habits.