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For the first time in more than 100 years, a free flying condor has entered the state of Oregon, traveling near Medford, Cave Junction, and Brookings.<\/p>\n
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MEDFORD, Ore. – A two-year-old California condor recently flew into Oregon for the first time since 1904, marking a historic milestone for wildlife recovery in the Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n
Condor B9 completed a 380-mile journey over four days from Orick in Northern California to an area near Medford. The bird flew a total of 80 miles in Oregon and expanded the Northern California Condor Restoration Program flock’s range by 25 miles north and 35 miles east.<\/p>\n
“We have always known that at least one of our condors would eventually travel into Oregon because the state is well within their flight range. We are thrilled it finally happened,” Williams-Claussen said.<\/p>\n
The last wild condor in Oregon was seen in the city of Drain between Eugene and Roseburg in 1904. Before the restoration program, the last free-flying condor in Northern California was documented during the early 1900s in Humboldt County.<\/p>\n
B9 was hatched on April 3, 2024, at the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise and released into the redwood region last fall. On May 12, she began her four-day flight from Orick, traveling to within 12 miles of Redding before crossing both the northern Trinity Alps and Marble Mountain Wildernesses. She reached her northernmost point within 8 miles of Medford on May 16.<\/p>\n
On the return trip, she spent one night near Cave Junction before heading down the Smith River corridor. She made a detour to Brookings on the coast and arrived back at the facility on May 16.<\/p>\n
Condors can soar up to 250 miles per day. B9 covered nearly 100 miles each day on her trip into Oregon.<\/p>\n
“Young birds, like B9, explore more extensively than adults, which typically remain within a home range established during their juvenile stage,” said Chris West, the program manager and Yurok Wildlife Department senior biologist. “Most likely, B9’s excursion was an exploratory flight to see what’s around her.”<\/p>\n
West said after they fledge, wild-born juvenile condors join up with other young condors and they teach each other their parents’ territories before settling on a home range. He said by that time, a young bird will have covered a large geographic area.<\/p>\n
“I imagine B9 will explore more and take other birds with her,” West said.<\/p>\n
This is the restoration program’s second major milestone in 2026. Earlier this year, condors A0 and A1 established the flock’s first nest and deposited an egg in a hollowed-out cavity near the top of a redwood tree. The egg failed, though the cause is unknown.<\/p>\n
The California Condor Recovery Program is an international multi-entity effort led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Northern California Condor Restoration Program is a partnership between the Yurok Tribe and Redwood National and State Parks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For the first time in more than 100 years, a free flying condor has entered the state…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":839130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[27],"tags":[276,51713,74305,30341,343770,212,29975,159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":["post-839129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-california","tag-california-condor","tag-condor","tag-endangered","tag-historic-milestone","tag-oregon","tag-pacific-northwest","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116680576667729067","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}