In April 1987 the last wild California condor was trapped and carried into captivity. The entire species, 27 birds, lived in two breeding facilities in Southern California. At the end of 2025, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s annual population report, the count stood at 607, with 392 condors flying free.
That is the first time the total has passed 600 since the recovery program began. Of the wild birds, 99 are in Southern California, 117 in Central California, 98 in Arizona and Utah, 53 in Baja California and 25 in the Pacific Northwest. Sixteen chicks fledged in the wild in 2025, and 46 captive-bred birds were released.
How the California condor population came back
The condor was listed as endangered in 1967, and the population bottomed out at 22 birds in 1982. When the decision was made to bring every remaining condor into captivity, the Fish and Wildlife Service partnered with the Los Angeles Zoo and the San Diego Zoo to run an intensive breeding program. The first captive chick hatched in 1988. Releases into the wild began in 1992, and the first successful wild-hatched chick came in 2004.
By 2008, for the first time, more condors were flying wild than living in captivity. The San Diego Zoo Safari Park hatched its 250th condor chick in March 2024, a bird named Emaay, the Kumeyaay word for sky. Emaay’s father, Xol-Xol, was the first condor brought into human care in 1982 and has sired 41 chicks since 1993.
“Reaching this milestone feels incredible,” Nora Willis, a senior wildlife care specialist at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, said when the 250th chick hatched. “Seeing the success that the San Diego Zoo Safari Park has had, and the success of the California Condor Recovery Program as a whole, is really inspiring.”
A bird you can see from the freeway
With a wingspan of about nine and a half feet, the condor is the largest land bird in North America. Southern California’s flock ranges through Ventura and Kern counties, and the birds are regularly spotted near Bitter Creek and Hopper Mountain national wildlife refuges, within a couple of hours of Los Angeles.
The recovery is not finished. Lead poisoning from ammunition fragments in carcasses remains the leading known cause of death, with 161 confirmed lead deaths in the wild population between 1992 and 2025. Twenty-two wild condors died in 2025. The species is still listed as endangered, and the population is not yet self-sustaining without releases.
Still, the arithmetic tells the story. Twenty-seven birds in 1987. Six hundred and seven today, most of them in the sky.
Sources
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2025 California Condor Population Status
- California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Condor
- Los Angeles Zoo, California Condor
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Condor Recovery Program
- San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, 250th condor chick (April 2024)
