For this post, I show a diverse set of black & white photos of the California condor.
The 1st pair of photos date from 1906:
Photographer: William L Finley. Source: Mathewson, W. William L Finley: pioneer wildlife photographer. Oregon State University Press. 1986.
The blurry condor in this photo reflects the limits of photography in the early 20th century:
Photographer: William Leon Dawson. Source: Dawson, William Leon. 1923. The birds of California. South Moulton.
There is no explanation of this photo in the book from which it comes:
Photographer: F H Holmes. Source: Bent, A C. Life histories of North American birds of prey: order Falconiformes. United States National Museum. 1937.
This next photo is from a German-language book and credited simply to “Bent”. The photo appears in A. C. Bent’s Life Histories …, cited above, with the photographer credit given below.
Photographers: W L Finley and H T Bohlman. Source: Fischer, Wolfgang. 1963. Die Geier. A. Ziemsen.
Here is a fine photo of a soaring condor without wing tags:
Photographer: Fred Sibley. Source: Heintzelman, D S. Hawks and owls of North America: a complete guide to North American birds of prey. Universe. 1979.
This “studio” portrait was taken at the Los Angeles Zoo:
Photographers: Susan Middleton and David Liittschwager. Source: Middleton, Susan, and David Liittschwager. 1994. Witness: endangered species of North America. Chronicle.
And another beautiful portrait by these same photographers:
Photographers: David Liittschwager and Susan Middleton. Source: Wilcove, David S. 1999. The condor’s shadow: the loss and recovery of wildlife in America. W. H. Freeman.
Finally, a pair of photos found after the rest of this post was assembled:
Photographer: Nina Leen. Source: Leen, Nina. 1973. And then there were none: America’s vanishing wildlife. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Pseudogryps 