Condor

Description

The Vulture is a type of large bird, with a massive wingspan of up to eleven feet. It is in many ways similar to the Vultures of the East and Southern Threshold, though the two birds cannot interbreed.

A Condor displays minimal sexual dimorphism; sexes are identical in plumage and in coloration, although the male is slightly larger. The body feathers are mostly brownish-black, with white or silver triangular bands on the underside of each wing. The adult's head is small in proportion to its body and ranges yellow to red in color with few to no feathers, though at its base is a small frill of dark feathers. The Condor can flush its head to change its colour and shade, an ability used for communication with other Condors.

Because it lacks a syrinx, a Condor can only utter hisses and grunts which are audible only when up close. It usually hisses when it feels threatened. Grunts are commonly heard from hungry young.

Habitat & Range

The Condor is found on the Blessed Isle and to a lesser extent in the Northeastern Threshold, with a variant found in small numbers in the West, on the Wavecrest Archipelago.

Condors prefer open areas, ranging across the length and breadth of the southern and Eastern Blessed Isle, though never in large numbers. A single condor can cover a range of up to 160 miles in search of carrion.

Diet

Condors are carrion-eaters, preferring to feast on large, terrestrial mammalian carcasses such as deer, goats, sheep, donkeys, horses, pigs, cougars, bears, or Cattle. Alternatively, they may feed on the bodies of smaller mammals, such as rabbits or coyotes, aquatic mammals such as whales and sea lions, or Salmon. Condors spot these corpses by eye, or by looking for other animals such as eagles and Raiton. They can usually intimidate other scavengers away from the carcass, with the exception of bears, which will ignore them, and Golden Eagles, which will fight a condor over a kill or a carcass. They are intermittent eaters, often going for many days without eating, then gorging themselves on large amounts of meat when opportunity arises.

Like most fauna of the Blessed Isle, the Condor has adapted to human presence, and particularly to that of the Scarlet Dynasty. With wild animals scarce, the largest carrion carcasses on the Isle are found left behind once Dynastic hunters have taken their trophies... Condors are sometimes spotted in the air, following in the wake of mounted hunting parties. Other than such succulent spoils, the bulk of Condor sustenance comes from livestock which has died of natural causes.

Breeding

To attract a prospective mate, the male condor performs a display where he turns his head bright red and puffs out his neck feathers. He then spreads his wings and slowly approaches the female. If the female lowers her head to accept the male, the condors become mates for life. The pair makes a simple nest in caves or on cliff clefts, especially ones with nearby roosting trees and open spaces for landing. A mated female lays one bluish-white egg every other year. Raiton are the main predatory threat to condor eggs, while Golden Eagles and bears are potential predators of condor offspring.

Cultural Significance

In the culture of the Blessed Isle, and elsewhere where the Dragonblooded hold sway, the Condor has a positive reputation, welcomed by Dragonblooded of the air aspect for its role in Sky Burials (one of the Dragonblooded Funerary Rites), devouring the bodies of dead Terrestrial Exalts and carrying their flesh up into the sky.

Conversely, amongst the tribes of Linowa, the bird is viewed in a negative light, perhaps because it prefers coniferous trees over deciduous for its perches. Linowan legend says the first Condor once descended and slew many humans to flood the hole of the first Rodent so it might be driven into the Condor's maw, but the Rodent severed the head of the Condor with their sharp teeth when it paused to drink some of the spilt blood. The head was re-attached, but it had become rotted and featherless.