Zoo welcomes first condor eggs of season

The first five California condor eggs of 2026 have arrived at the Oregon Zoo's Jonsson Center for Wildlife Conservation, and keepers hope to see quite a few more in the coming weeks.

"We're off to a great start, and looking forward to another successful season," said Nicole LaGreco, who oversees the zoo's condor recovery efforts. "With only around 560 California condors in the entire world, each egg is incredibly important."

The first egg arrived Jan. 26 to condors No. 544 and 189.

"These are two of our 'early birds,'" LaGreco said. "Egg-laying season typically runs through March, sometimes into April, but this pair's had a January egg for three years in a row."

The second egg of the season came on Feb. 2 and three more arrived on Feb. 4. Fourteen condor pairs are currently living at the conservation center, LaGreco said, and almost all have raised at least one chick before.

The condor parents will sit on their eggs for up to two weeks before keepers remove them to check whether they are fertile. This determination is made through a process called candling - using a bright light source behind the egg to show details through the shell.

Fertile eggs are placed in an incubator to prevent any potential damage, and the condor parents sit on dummy eggs until hatching begins, usually in 54 to 58 days. At that time, keepers switch the real eggs back, so the chicks can hatch under their parents.

In certain cases, LaGreco said, condors will not receive a dummy egg in the hopes that they will lay a second egg. This process, known as "double clutching," has helped increase condor numbers and improve genetic diversity in the population since the recovery program began.

The chicks will stay with their parents for at least eight months before moving to pre-release pens for about a year. Eventually, they will travel to a wild release site to join free-flying condors in California and Arizona.

The California condor was one of the original animals included on the 1973 Endangered Species Act and is classified as critically endangered. In 1982, only 22 remained in the wild and by 1987, the last condors were brought into human care in an attempt to save the species from extinction. Thanks to recovery programs like the Oregon Zoo's, the world's California condor population now totals around 560 birds, most of which are flying free.

The Oregon Zoo's recovery efforts take place at the Jonsson Center for Wildlife Conservation, located in rural Clackamas County on Metro-owned open land. The remoteness of the facility minimizes the exposure of young condors to people, increasing their chances to survive and breed in the wild.

Upgrades and new equipment at the Jonsson Center have been made possible through continued support from Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, the Avangrid Foundation, and donations to the Oregon Zoo Foundation, which supports the zoo's efforts in advancing animal well-being, species recovery work and conservation education.

More than 140 chicks have hatched at the Jonsson Center since 2003, and more than 100 Oregon Zoo-reared birds have gone out to field pens for release. Several eggs laid by Oregon Zoo condors have been placed in wild nests to hatch.