Like This Page · August 26 ·

On Saturday, August 22, 2020, two Forest Service employees were making a delivery to one of the fire camps supporting the Dolan Fire when this magnificent creature flew over their vehicle and landed on a rocky embankment on CA Highway 1. Los Padres employee Gregg Jennings quickly whipped out his camera and took this awesome picture.
According to the Ventana Wildlife Society condor bio, this bird is known as “Amigo” (Condor #204). Amigo was hatched at the San Diego Zoo on April 28, 1999, and released in the wild on March 4, 2000. Soon after his release, he bonded with two other condors who were roughly the same age. They were inseparable and did everything and went everywhere together, aka “The Three Amigos.”
These three birds also had a tendency for getting into trouble and new techniques were used to discourage them from unsafe behavior. In 2010, after going undetected for a long period of time, Amigo was found severely injured in a Southern California cave. He had suffered severe injuries to his wing, face and beak and it is believed he was likely hit by a car.
He was taken back to the San Diego Zoo and underwent a lengthy rehabilitation. Despite sustaining some permanent damage, he was able to fly again and upon his release returned to Big Sur where he can occasionally be seen soaring above the coastline and Highway 1.