A California condor took an unexpected trip last month, crossing into Oregon and then flying back to Redwood National Park after a 380-mile loop over four days.

Condor conservationists with the Yurok Tribe later identified the bird as B9, a condor born in captivity and released into the wild by the Yurok in 2022. The flight made B9 the first condor recorded in Oregon since 1904.

The bird started high in the redwoods, passed Redding in Northern California, then entered Oregon. It stopped near Medford, Cave Junction and Brookings before crossing back into California and returning to the national park.

Yurok Tribe Wildlife Department director Tiana Williams Claussen told Oregon Public Broadcasting that B9 is an especially curious bird.

“She flew almost 100 miles per day,” Williams Claussen said, “which means she was really utilizing the landscape the way that only a condor can, really taking advantage of those mountains and riverways that give good flight corridors.”

California condors remain critically endangered. From the 1980s, when the last 22 wild birds were captured and placed in a breeding program, to 2016, when more animals were born in the wild than died there, the population had only risen to 276 wild birds.

The Redwood population also marked another milestone in February, when a female laid an egg in the hollow of a redwood tree in a remote part of the park. It was the first time that had happened in more than 100 years, though the egg did not hatch.

“Even with the egg loss, that was still a really amazing milestone for us,” Williams Claussen said. “It’s pretty common that eggs will fail in that first year, as these naive parents are really figuring it out.”

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