The condor soars with its wings held horizontally and its
primary feathers bent upwards at the tips. It prefers to roost on high places from which it can launch without major wing-flapping effort. Andean condors are often seen soaring near rock cliffs, using the heat
thermals to aid them in rising in the air. Flight recorders have shown that "75% of the birds' flapping was associated with take-off", and that it "flaps its wings just 1% of the time during flight". The proportion of time for flapping is more for short flights. Flapping between two thermal glides is more than flapping between two slope glides. Like other
New World vultures, the Andean condor has the unusual habit of
urohidrosis: it often empties its
cloaca onto its legs and feet. A cooling effect through
evaporation has been proposed as a reason for this behavior, but it does not make any sense in the cold Andean habitat of the bird. Because of this habit, their legs are often streaked with a white buildup of
uric acid. There is a well-developed social structure within large groups of condors, with competition to determine a 'pecking order' by body language, competitive play behavior, and
vocalizations. Generally, mature males tend to be at the top of the pecking order, with post-dispersal immature males tending to be near the bottom. It may live to 50 years or more, and it mates for life. He approaches the female with neck outstretched, revealing the inflated neck and the chest patch, while hissing, then extends his wings and stands erect while clicking his tongue. Its nest, which consists of a few sticks placed around the eggs, is created on inaccessible ledges of rock. However, in coastal areas of Peru, where there are few cliffs, some nests are simply partially shaded crannies scraped out against boulders on slopes. The egg hatches after 54 to 58 days of
incubation by both parents. If the chick or egg is lost or removed, another egg is laid to take its place. Researchers and breeders take advantage of this behavior to double the reproductive rate by taking the first egg away for hand-rearing, causing the parents to lay a second egg, which they are generally allowed to raise. The young are covered with a grayish down until they are almost as large as their parents. They are able to fly after six months,
Feeding s The Andean condor is a
scavenger, feeding mainly on
carrion. Wild condors inhabit large territories, often traveling more than a day in search of carrion. Andean condors have been observed to do some hunting of small, live animals, such as
rodents,
birds and
rabbits, which (given their lack of powerful, grasping feet or developed hunting technique) they usually kill by jabbing repeatedly with their bill. in the background by an immature male. Coastal areas provide a constant food supply, and in particularly plentiful areas, some Andean condors limit their foraging area to several kilometers of beach-front land. They locate carrion by spotting it or by following other scavengers, such as
corvids or other vultures. It may follow New World vultures of the genus
Cathartes—the
turkey vulture (
C. aura), the
lesser yellow-headed vulture (
C. burrovianus), and the
greater yellow-headed vulture (
C. melambrotus)—to carcasses. The
Cathartes vultures forage by smell, detecting the scent of
ethyl mercaptan, a gas produced by the beginnings of decay in dead animals. These smaller vultures cannot rip through the tougher hides of these larger animals with the efficiency of the larger condor, and their interactions are often an example of
mutual dependence between species. However, studies have indicated that Andean condors are fairly proficient at searching out carrion without needing to rely on other scavengers to guide them to it.
Black vultures (
Coragyps atratus) and several mammalian carnivorous scavengers such as
foxes may sometimes track
Cathartes vultures for carcasses or compete with condors over available carrion but the condor is invariably dominant among the scavengers in its range. Andean condors are intermittent eaters in the wild, often going for a few days without eating, then gorging themselves on several pounds at once, sometimes to the point of being unable to lift off the ground. Because its feet and talons are not adapted to grasping, it must feed while on the ground. Andean condors can efficiently absorb a wide variety of
carotenoid pigments from the vegetal matter within the
viscera that they consume from carcasses. These include carotenoids such as
β-carotene and
echineone. The pigments result in the yellow skin colouration of adult males and their ability to flush their skin a brilliant yellow during contests for dominance, as well as the colour of the iris and bright orange tongues of both sexes. Captive Andean condors have a lower concentration of carotenoid pigments in their bodies than wild condors, likely because the diet of captive condors is usually restricted to just flesh. An analysis of the droppings of wild condors found that 90% contained vegetal remains, and of those that contained vegetal remains, 35% of them were composed of primarily vegetal matter (around 80% by volume). The potential sources for the vegetal matter is posited to include the viscera of herbivore carcasses as well as fresh vegetation. This is the greatest verified age ever known for a bird. ==Relationship with humans==