Photogenic & newsworthy eggs & chicks

From the 1980s, here are news photos of some of the first California condors hatched in captivity.

Except as noted, the original captions are given below each photo.

APPEARS FERTILE — Don Sterner, the condor keeper at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, weighs the California condor egg laid last Thursday at the park. Park officials say the egg weighed 281.3 grams and is fertile. [AP]

An avian biologist at the San Diego Zoo helps a California condor chick from its shell. Photo courtesy of the San Diego Zoo. [San Diego Zoo press release — caption on reverse side]

The caption above is incomplete but indicates that this egg was laid in the wild, taken to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, artificially incubated, and hatched with the aid of veterinarians and keepers. The newly-hatched chick weighed 5.5 ounces. [AP]

A California condor chick rests after its exhausting three-day hatching process that ended Sunday at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Kaduku is the 31st member of the critically endangered species, and this year’s third successful hatching in the captive breeding program aimed at helping condors rebound from the brink of extinction. [AP]

LOOKS LIKE MAMA — Molloko, the California condor chick hatched last week at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, is fed a meal of minced mice from the beak of a hand puppet designed to resemble an adult condor. The parent puppet was introduced to the chick Wednesday morning at the Wild Animal Park. [AP]

BOY OR GIRL? — Sespe, the third California condor hatched in captivity, poses for a picture Wednesday shortly before veterinarians at the San Diego Wild Animal Park extracted a tiny blood sample that will determine the sex of the rare bird. [AP]

For news photos of California condor eggs from the 1920s, see Early attempts at captive breeding.

Thanks to cameras at condor nesting sites it is now possible to watch the entire process from egg laying (late winter to early spring) to fledging (late summer to early autumn). Search the web for “california condor nest cam” to find current links to these video feeds.