February 19, 2015

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Egg-laying season starts at California condor breeding sites

Egg-laying season has started at four breeding facilities for captive California condors, North America's largest bird.

As of Thursday, the Peregrine Fund's World Center for Birds of Prey near Boise, Idaho, has four among its 16 breeding pairs.

The Oregon Zoo has three eggs, the Los Angeles Zoo four, and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park has two.

Oregon Zoo Senior Keeper of Condors Kelli Walker says the four facilities produce about 40 eggs each year as part of a program to bolster wild populations of the endangered bird.

California condors teetered on extinction in the 1980s and now number more than 400. Of those, about 230 are in the wild in Arizona, California and Mexico's Baja peninsula.

The birds can live more than 60 years and have wingspans approaching 10 feet.

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