Insignia

A number of organizations have chosen the California condor, or the “condor” in general, for their insignia. Here I present some examples, all in the form of woven patches.

This Boy Scout patch features an excellent image of a California condor and great design:

The white ruff on the bird on this Boy Scout patch suggests an Andean, rather than a California, condor:

Likewise, the patch for this US Navy minesweeper shows a bird with a white ruff:

I doubt that the next 2 patches are actual, official insignia (please correct me if I am wrong). There was a team of forest firefighters known as the Ojai Hotshots in the 1970s. This brand-new patch has a reasonable likeness of a California condor:

I hope that this patch, with its pot-bellied bird, is a novelty, rather than an official, insignia:

As the first patch above demonstrates, an accurate representation of a California condor can be created with just 5 (or even 4) colors. If North American organizations want to adopt the condor as their symbol, then why not choose the California condor instead of the Andean species? And then choose a likeness that, even if a caricature, has the essential features of the California condor.

But, there are far bigger fish to fry ….