A Turkey Buzzard Roost

Abstract

In the later 50’s, in the central and northern parts of the state, it was not uncommon also to see the great Condors (Gymnogyps californianus) associated with flocks of a dozen or more buzzards, feeding on the remains of a dead horse or steer. I frequently saw them between the years of 1857 and 1860 on the bare hills of lower Napa Valley. They were so much larger than the buzzards that there was no trouble in distinguishing one from the other. Generally where there was a flock of the smaller birds gathered about a carcass, there would be two or three of the big Condors. It is my impression that after 1859 or 1860 the latter were seldom seen, in the Napa section at least; and I think the extinction of the Condor in northern California took place in the decade following 1860