Certain “poses” by California condors seem to be especially attractive to photographers, illustrators, painters, sculptors, and other artists. One of these poses has long been referred to as the “sun worshipper”.
The sun-worshipper pose is not just about spread wings, which also happens on takeoff and landing, during mating, and for other reasons. It’s clear from the images below that the sun-worshipper pose is distinct (even when the sun’s position is not revealed by the image).
The dozen examples below all appeared previously on this blog in another context. I have gathered these images together in this post so they may be considered as a “classic” pose.
For details about the images, please follow the link below each one to the blog post where the image first appeared.
Black & white illustrations from books: 1958-1988
Guy Coheleach’s art in Audubon Magazine
Reviews of Carl Koford’s 1953 report
More photos from magazines: 1989-2017
Still more postal miscellaneous
For more on the “sun worshipper” pose, see the post Short scientific articles. In a future post, I will further consider the important purpose of this pose for condors (and other birds).
For another “classic pose” of California condors, see Classic poses 1.
Pseudogryps 