11  Considering the evidence of the Andean Condor in Alabama.

Within the past decade there is better reason to believe that the Andean Condor Vultur gryphus demonstrates extra-limital dispersal away from its "known" domain in the Andes of South America.  The proof, the special evidence of which I have long awaited and which upholds my claim that such an extraordinary phenomenon is real, is and has been in the public interest.  However, that was only my initial impression.  I will take further steps in addressing the issue of why the problem of dissemination of the facts can be difficult.  This is written at a period, perhaps irreversible, of decline in the Andean Condor.

I have known about this for years, but it was first publicized in the winter of 2016 and was based on photographs taken the previous summer.  The location was the Bald Rock Trail in Cheaha State Park in northern Alabama.  I was able to write to certain persons of interest to the subject, but then I did not receive a reply.  I was also critical on some points relating to the characters of the bird in question.  Knowing that the actual website which presented these findings is not my own work, I also assumed that its dissemination would not be a matter I could control; I even assumed that, perhaps, someone else would have come to the initial presumption as I did, that it was evidence of the Andean Condor.   

I have decided again to examine the evidence carefully, and it is intriguing.

Map of Alabama highlighting where the sighting took place.  The location itself, Bald Rock Trail, is marked by an asterisk (*).  This map shows the location in relation to the rest of the state and the surrounding states.

This is a detail of the above map, highlighting in green Cleburne County, which designates the county where the actual sighting took place.  Much of Cheaha State Park is actually in Clay County to the south, highlighted in yellow.  I was able to clarify this information with the Park Superintendent of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources at Cheaha State Park.  The bird was at the southern limit of the county when it was photographed.

The subject was photographed during park hours in the middle of the summer:  August 14, 2015.  This correlates to what would be a period of reverse movement or misorientation among Andean Condors in South America, as many of the other cases which I have included in my findings suggest a pattern of the same period of the year.  There is, also, the fact that young Turkey Vultures Cathartes aura septentrionalis are also prevalent.

https://visitcryptoville.com/2016/02/17/giant-black-birds-in-alabama-mystery-solved/

The above link is my source.  It was written by Susan McNally who presented the photographs of Catherine "Cat" Turner on both the VisitCryptoville website and its Facebook page (the latter I did not examine).  It appeared February 17, 2016 as "Giant Black Birds in Alabama--Mystery Solved?"

The images cannot convey a relative indicator of size, though this bird is flying over a growth of hickory trees (Carya sp.).  I have written of this point in previous posts.  This is a black bird, a cathartid vulture, with a relatively lengthy tail and some obvious white around its neck, and this white area is in some contrast with the rest of its plumage.  I wanted to know if that is indicative of feathers or of skin.  The tail of this bird seems to be relatively lengthy as a proportion of its overall size.  

The author of the webpage which included the images in question was contacted.  This month I solicited her for permission to use a detail of one of them, a picture which clearly shows the bird close to the photographer.  It is a vulture-like raptor with what appears to be a whitish ring or whitish fleshy area at the base of its neck.  The head is dark gray, and there are some pale margins to the upperwing-coverts.  Two years ago (October 22, 2021) I had written the following in my notes about this same individual:  

"This appears to be a subadult female, with the white ruff of the adult and with (as "Condor02" shows) some white edges beginning to show to the feathering of the tertiaries.  It is a female because the photograph shows the detail that there is no comb.  I assume that this peculiar bird shows that the Andean Condor develops the white ruff first before the feathering of the upperwings turn white."

In the interval, I have become more enlightened to learn differently about what I had then written.  It is in actuality not clear to me if, in Andean Condors, the white of the ruff develops first before the white of the upperwings.  What I described as "white" in relation to white edges is actually more of a paler, dull brown, and, even more significantly, only the upperwing-coverts have these margins; they are almost imperceptible on this bird's secondaries, and this raises the very important question as to why the latter would not even begin to show paler margins, as is the case with its wing-coverts.  It would only be a female if it is an Andean Condor, as the bird does not show a comb.   (The above reference to the image "Condor02" refers to the corresponding image on Susan McNally's webpage; this shows the subject on the downward flap of its wings.)  Also, the two extant condor species, especially the Andean Condor, have long, projecting primaries which show the outermost primary to not be as reduced in relation to the others; the relative length of the primaries to each other is different in a condor than in this raptor seen at Cheaha State Park.  

I can clearly see the flaws in my logic and must now own to them if I am going to present a piece about this particular case. 

The above picture is a sketch I made of the subject in question, based on the photograph detail ("Condor03") of the image which appears on the above VisitCryptoville webpage.  It is a rough impression of the bird flying over growths of hickory trees.

On the VisitCryptoville webpage, the author offered arguments as speculation as to why the Andean Condor could not be the identity of the subject in question, and my impression is that this is wanting.  In summary, Susan McNally felt that their decreasing numbers would make them "least likely" of those which were considered in this piece to be the identity of the bird in question.  The author also questioned the possibility that a frigatebird species (i.e., Magnificent Frigatebird Fregata magnificens) could be the identity of this bird.  The Magnificent Frigatebird has occurred as a rarity in Alabama, but it is not so rare as to be classified as an Accidental species.  It would be very unlikely within the northern part of the state.  Most importantly, the proportions of one as respects its head, wings, beak, and tail would not correspond to that of the bird which was photographed.  There is also a reference therein, from the readers' comments, to the Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias), but this is here ruled out.

McNally presented the argument as to its identity that the bird was actually a California Condor Gymnogyps californianus.  This was based on the opinion of Dr. Scott K. Robinson of the University of Florida, Gainesville.  From the map provided on that webpage, California Condors were found throughout the southern and eastern United States on presumptive evidence based on the localities of various fossil remains; they occurred there ten thousand years ago at the onset of the Holocene.  I, too, contacted Robinson in preparation of this post, and the opinion he provided me was the same.  This is difficult to understand, given that California Condors do not show any white at the base of their necks, and that, if this were to be considered an adult bird, there would be some obvious white as an inner panel on the underwings.  The adult California Condor has a characteristically pink head, and the juvenile's head is dark gray with plumage that is more of a uniform sooty-brown color.  (Placement of some images on the VisitCryptoville website is incorrect:  for the discussion on the California Condor, one of the five images therein depicts an adult Andean, and the discussion on the Andean Condor shows an image of an adult Californian.)

For myself, I felt that a critical difference was made when I contacted Shonda Borden at Cheaha State Park, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.  Borden explained to me that juvenile Turkey Vultures Cathartes aura septentrionalis show white on the nape; more likely, it is one of these.  The same opinion she had reached was separately given to me by Nate Swick of the American Birding Association, each query being independent of the other.  It could not be a Black Vulture Coragyps atratus because it shows much white on its primaries, particularly on the undersides of them.  I have also recently contacted a research professional at Auburn University, the Alabama Ornithological Society, and the American Ornithological Society about this matter.  I also queried the issue at the site Birdforum, the link to which I will copy here----

https://www.birdforum.net/members/mmslouis.15835/

It was also helpful to read the reader's comments from Susan McNally's post itself.  The first of these, written by Ella Stokely, drew immediate attention to Turkey Vultures.  I soon considered the thesis of my draft presentation, that it was possibly an Andean Condor, to be meritless.  I realized that I have more to learn about birds, even those kinds of vultures I have personally seen. 

IDENTITY OF THE INDIVIDUAL PHOTOGRAPHED IN ALABAMA

As far as what conclusion I have made about the subject, I feel that I agree with those who consider it to be a Turkey Vulture.

https://crc.sf.ucdavis.edu/blog/turkey-vulture-times-two

The images at the above link (Billy Thein) from the California Raptor Center at the University of California, Davis, show that the fledgling or pullus Turkey Vulture has much downy white in its plumage, and, no less significantly, there is a fleshy area at the base of the neck which is----white.  It can be seen that, as they develop, these vultures retain some of the white around their necks.  Having observed immature Turkey Vultures myself, I have not seen this characteristic, but I feel that it may be more prevalent among the youngest, recently-fledged birds.  It is not a character to also be expected amongst this species.  As a slight digression, there is geographic subspeciation in the Turkey Vulture, with the eastern birds representing the race C. a. septentrionalis, but this does not mean that those younger birds in one part of North America are to any great degree different, in this respect of the development of their plumage, than those from another part.

However, I am very intrigued because it, in this and in other, potential cases, begins to turn the issue of extra-limital movement in the Andean Condor on its head.  It is, likewise, not a given if a large raptor with a white ring around its neck is an Andean Condor.  The individual must also be identified to have the upperwing panels so characteristic of the Vultur genus but otherwise unknown in the other great birds of prey with black or dark plumages; this is an especial challenge in matters of identification, but it is, no less, an important and necessary one.  

I do not feel that any of my previous pieces in The Unknown Andean Condor should be edited or that my views have changed.  Thus far, I still maintain all of the arguments I have written from them.  In this post, I realize a need to be cautious in making a preliminary assessment of what I should write or incorporate as a legitimate sighting of the Andean Condor when it is being observed away from South America.  It is also interesting that the California Condor should again be mentioned as the identity of the above bird from Alabama.  I had written about how in my view it had been conflated with the Andean on a previous post (UAC8), where the authors of the book California Condors in the Pacific Northwest treated what I take to be an example of the latter to be the Californian.  

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EARLIER CLAIMS OF ANDEAN CONDORS IN ALABAMA, FLORIDA

I was able to extract the following from the VisitCryptoville webpages, with the surprising claim of an Andean Condor in the same state, three years before, in 2012.

https://visitcryptoville.com/2012/09/21/giant-flying-raptors-birds-new-species-old-species-or-dinosaurs/

"Giant Flying Raptors (Birds):  New Species, Old Species, or Dinosaurs?"

https://visitcryptoville.com/2012/09/29/brand-new-sighting-of-giant-black-bird-in-alabama/

"Brand New Sighting of Giant Black Bird in Alabama!"

I will summarize the information as follows.  The main witness in another Alabama sighting, Bill Summers, claimed to have seen a bird which was, at first, described as an Andean Condor.  The sighting occurred on September 28, 2012, near Buck's Pocket State Park (in or proximate to DeKalb County).  As the information from the second link shows, the subject was attributed as an Andean.  However, the witness(es) later reviewed their finding, which was not supported by evidence.  After providing about three comments (first link, above), the witness then decided the day after writing them that it was not a raptor at all but was, instead, a frigatebird.  It was likely a Magnificent Frigatebird.  Hurricane Isaac had passed into the region, but its affects were reduced by September 1 of that year.  It is important to note that the bird was described as having white "between its wings and tail," or, more specifically, on its abdomen.  This actually rules out the argument for a condor sighting and does favor the frigatebird, which, in its juvenile stage can show white on the neck and on its underparts as distinctly-patterned markings.  Having reviewed records on eBird, I was unable to find any other reports of the frigatebird in that part of the state.  (In the comments section of the second link ("Brand New Sighting.."), also, Susan McNally clarified that the witnesses had felt that what they had observed was, indeed, a frigatebird.)

It was in this same comments section (second link) that a reader wrote a lengthy passage about an observation of a giant bird, this one being observeed in central Florida.  The comment was written by the user "giant raptors" and posted on November 7, 2013; the date of the sighting is not given, nor is the location.  (The comment by Susan McNally in response to this draws attention to Gainesville, Florida (Alachua County), but this is not necessarily where the observer was when the bird was seen.)  The subject was a large bird with a "black head with a crest like an Andean condor, yet also had a black neck ruff and white under its wings like a California condor."  The comments draw attention to the question of whether or not the Andean and California Condors have been known to hybridize, or if this is possible; on the first point, no, and on the second, it is very unlikely that any such hybrids would be present anywhere in the United States.

To this latter comment of a possible Andean Condor in Florida, based on the description, I feel that it is insufficient to even register as a hypothetical sighting, even if certain wanting details such as date and location were given more specificity by the observer.  The second webpage by Susan McNally includes three images of Andean Condors.  The underwings of those would be uniform blackish (UAC5).  For the subject to be a California Condor, I would question why the observer did not notice a tag on one of its wings, as those would have been put there by conservationists working with the release of birds of their species.  The discussion on this particular post does not draw attention to a bird which does have white under its wings, the aforementioned Black Vulture, one that is also common to Florida and bears a black ruff.  If a "crest" was seen as well, then I would question whether that was simply an impression of the prominent arch along the top of the Black Vulture's head and whether no crest was really present.  This last detail is difficult to readily dismiss.

The mentioning of a hybrid vulture is further significant in other ways.  There is to my knowledge at least one or more records of hybridization between the Turkey Vulture and the Black Vulture, and this is despite their representing different genera.  An example of an early record, probably the first, appeared in The Auk in 1937 (E. A. McIlhenny, 54(3):384).  In the above case of the bird photographed in 2015 at Cheaha State Park, I, too, questioned the possibility of the winged subject being a hybrid, but I had simply mulled the point and did not speculate as to what species would be paired in such a combination.  This notion I have dismissed, in these cases, if I were to suggest that the Andean could hybridize with a more prevalent cathartid vulture species, and, likewise, no prior records are known to me.

PROBLEMS OF DISSEMINATING INFORMATION

To summarize, there have been at least three claims of the Andean Condor discussed in this installment of The Unknown Andean Condor.  I can see from reading the material over that it can be very difficult, even with the evidence necessary to substantiate any claim, to reach a safe conclusion as to what a bird species may be; one slight discrepancy can compound confusion.  Where evidence is not present, I must rely on the descriptions of birds themselves, and this has proven to be even more difficult than what I previously supposed.  

The aforementioned and repeated opinion of a professional ornithologist from the University of Florida, Gainesville, is that the evidence of the 2015 sighting shows the bird in question to be a California Condor.  If it was, I also wonder why this particular individual does not show an alphanumeric tag.  If it was the Californian, I also wonder as to why there has been a lack of interest in establishing, for the records, the occurrence of that species in Alabama as an accidental.  Eight years have passed with little being done to rectify the matter, and, in part, this is what motivated me to write.  I, too, was cautious at first to take up the case and waited two years.  In a case such as this, where the presentation has been construed as a cryptozoology subject, it is evident that there is a lack of seamlessness and clarity that would speak to an interest to the birdwatching public in general.  I could speculate that even if many more people had read the post written in the VisitCryptoville website, they would have already dismissed the matter.  However, that particular webpage did create some interest as it generated many comments.  

There is also another point I will address, and one that is in my view unsettling.  I wonder that even if the bird in the picture taken at Cheaha State Park proved to be an actual female Andean Condor and not a juvenile Turkey Vulture showing much white around its neck, there would be an overly cautious take on this by the birdwatching community; it could still result in inaction.  The presence of the Vultur gryphus in the United States could still result in it being classified as a "hypothetical," a sort of footnote.  I will use an example of a separate case to explain.  

https://www.aba.org/rare-bird-alert-march-23-2023/

See the discussion and comment in the above link, from the American Birding Association, about the presence of the Yellow-headed Caracara Milvago chimachima in Florida, California, and North Carolina.  While the evidence for this South American raptor-falconid is very clear that it has been seen alive, not in captivity, in North America, none of the reports have allowed for this species' inclusion on any major North American bird lists (American Birding Association, American Ornithological Society, and the respective lists of the three states in question where it has been observed).  These were not accepted due to "questions about provenance."  This is just one of many examples to illustrate my point.  There is also the frequent case of misidentification and the way it has been perpetuated; even the most austere publications in the recent decades have had to issue subsequent notices retracting or rectifying the identity of the bird or creature which was allegedly claimed to have been sighted.  One good case is of an Oriental Pratincole Glareola maldivarum observed in China which had been originally believed to be the rare, if not extinct, White-eyed River Martin Pseudochelidon sirintarae (see Forktail, 2:95--96; 3:68--69).

DECLINE OF CONDOR

The proof of extra-limital movement in the Andean Condor, the special evidence of which I have long awaited and which upholds my claim that such an extraordinary phenomenon is real, may yet materialize, either as a published account on the net, in print, or as evidence which has not been shared with the public but which is belated and is waiting for its day.  I feel that this delay is also critical.  It is critical because this condor species is under threat in terms of its declining population.  It would only be beneficial to understanding its movements to provide this proof of them, though in fact it may be difficult to initiate a course of action on the appearance of one so far from its actual breeding grounds.  If one were to appear in Alabama or in any other part of the Americas away from South America, this represents a natural phenomenon.  I will begin to discuss the trends of the Andean Condor in my next post.

The above illustration by Gustav Mützel is of a female and male Andean Condor ("Kondor") from Brehm's Tierleben: Die Vogel (1892), 6: 463.  I am reprising this picture as it is an excellent example of the plumage and proportions of both sexes of the Andean Condor.  These details of plumage must all be considered in the case of providing evidence of the Andean away from its established haunts. 

I wish to acknowledge Shonda Borden, Park Superintendent at Cheaha State Park (Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources), for clarifying to me the specific details about the geography of the park in relation to the state's counties and for offering statements about the bird's identity.   I also appreciate the respective replies from both Nate Swick (American Birding Association) and Scott K. Robinson (University of Florida, Gainesville) to my queries at identifying the subject in question.

Mathew Louis

Written November 14, 2023

Beginning with this post (UAC11), all of the material of The Unknown Andean Condor will appear exclusively on Google Sites, and the first ten posts of this series are also presented in it.

CORRECTION:  UAC8

In UAC8 I wrote the following caption below images of Andean Condors with their wings outspread:  "Images of adult Andean Condors showing wings outspread from Wikimedia archives (Eric Kilby (above), user Bastihitzi (below))."  I had reversed the credits of the photographers of these two images.

Draft, UAC11----October 15--16; November 5, 10--13