Young California condor’s first short flight

This video from California in the USA says about itself:

Hutton’s Bowl Condor Chick Makes Jump-Flight While Exploring Canyon – Sept. 24, 2018

California Condor chick #923 is growing up in front of our eyes. Over the last few weeks, the cross-canyon cam has captured the young condor exploring the farther reaches of the cliff side near the Hutton’s Bowl nest. As the chick continues to progress towards fledging, we’ll see it perform increasing amounts of wing exercise that sometimes lofts it into the air for short distances, like this jumping flight across a cliff side gap this morning. These short burst of wing activity will aid the chick as it navigates the canyon side near the nest, but they are not considered a fledge event.

Condor experts have defined fledging as the first flight that takes a nestling beyond a walking commute to the nest entrance and necessitates an aerial return to the nest entrance.

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. This view of the Hutton’s Bowl California Condor Nest is a new view set up from across the canyon, giving a view of the nesting area as well as the surrounding cliff faces that the chick #923 has been traversing. If the chick’s not visible on this cam, be sure to check on the nest cam itself, here.

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