Frazier Park, California
Frazier Park is an unincorporated community in Kern County, California. It is 5 miles west at an elevation of 4,639 feet, it is one of the Mountain Communities of the Tejon Pass. The population was 2,691 in the 2010 census, up from 2,348 in 2000; the earliest record relating to Frazier Park was a report in 1854 that lumber was being produced there from Frazier Mountain trees for use at the new Army post at nearby Fort Tejon. Local historian Bonnie Ketterl Kane wrote that the mill was "supposedly" at the southeast end of the present community, she cited another report that a Kitanemuk Indian referred to the site as Campo del Soldado, "which was where the soldiers stayed when they cut timber from a mountain they called Pinery Mountain, today's Frazier Mountain."The community itself was established in 1925 by Harry McBain, who named it in 1926 for Frazier Mountain, on its southern flank. Its post office was established on September 14, 1927, with Charles B. Fife as the first postmaster. Frazier Park was used in filming for The Waltons television show.
Frazier Park is the setting of the 2011 film The FP and 1974's The Black Six. Frazier Park lies within Cuddy Canyon in the San Emigdio Mountains, within the Los Padres National Forest. Mount Pinos is the highest peak in the area at 8,831 ft. Other nearby communities include Lake of the Woods, Pine Mountain Club, Mettler. Santa Clarita is the nearest large city, to the south on Interstate 5; the San Andreas fault runs through the region, turning southeast on the west side of Interstate 5, just southwest of the Frazier Park exit in what is known as the Big Bend of the San Andreas. The nearest highway is Interstate 5, east of the community; the main road through Frazier Park is Frazier Mountain Park Road, which runs east to Lebec and I-5 and west to Lake of the Woods. This region experiences warm and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Frazier Park has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.
The 2010 United States Census reported that Frazier Park had a population of 2,691. The population density was 531.2 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Frazier Park was 2,297 White, 16 African American, 31 Native American, 22 Asian, 3 Pacific Islander, 212 from other races, 110 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 528 persons; the Census reported that 2,691 people lived in households, 0 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, 0 were institutionalized. There were 1,086 households, out of which 342 had children under the age of 18 living in them, 487 were opposite-sex married couples living together, 116 had a female householder with no husband present, 69 had a male householder with no wife present. There were 83 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, 7 same-sex married couples or partnerships. 312 households were made up of individuals and 97 had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48. There were 672 families; the population included 643 people under the age of 18, 243 people aged 18 to 24, 616 people aged 25 to 44, 874 people aged 45 to 64, 315 people who were 65 years of age or older.
The median age was 40.4 years. For every 100 females there were 100.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.0 males. There were 1,354 housing units at an average density of 267.3 per square mile, of which 673 were owner-occupied, 413 were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 4.5%. 1,627 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 1,064 people lived in rental housing units. A total of 2,348 people lived in Frazier Park in 2000. Other residents included 34 American Indians or Alaska natives, 19 Asians, 14 blacks. There were 292 Hispanics or Latinos of any race; the median age for Frazier Park residents was 38 years compared with 35 for the nation as a whole. Frazier Park had more veterans than its share — 293, or 17 percent, compared to 13 percent around the country, it had a higher percentage of disabled people than the rest of the nation — 36 percent against 19 percent. In contrast with the country at large, where 64 percent of the adults were working, Frazier Park had just 48 percent employed.
Those who were working had to travel some 42 minutes to their jobs, compared to 25 minutes for most Americans. Frazier Park households had a lower median income than the nation as a whole — $46,857, compared to $50,046. There were 291 people below the poverty level in Frazier Park in 2000; that is the same proportion as the country as a whole. A quarter of Frazier Park's 1,203 housing units were vacant when the census was taken in March 2000 — much higher than the national rate of 9 percent; this may be explained by the fact that many Frazier Park properties are seasonal homes. Property owners lived in about seven of every 10 occupied units, renters in the other three — just about the same as in the rest of the nation. Frazier Park is governed by the Kern County Board of Supervisors. On August 13, 2009, County Supervisor Ray Watson announced that he wanted to appoint Thomas Lauchlan as Mayor to assist him in the governance of the area, which includes Fraz
Los Padres National Forest
Los Padres National Forest is a United States national forest in southern and central California. Administered by the United States Forest Service, Los Padres includes most of the mountainous land along the California coast from Ventura to Monterey, extending inland. Elevations range from sea level to 8,847 feet; the forest is 1,950,000 acres in area, of which 1,762,400 acres or about 88% are public lands. The forest is divided between two noncontiguous areas; the northern division is within Monterey County and includes the beautiful Big Sur Coast and scenic interior areas. This is a popular area for hiking, with 323 miles of hiking trails and 11 campgrounds; this division contains the Ventana Wilderness, home to the California condor. The "main division" of the forest includes lands within San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Kern Counties, with a small extension into Los Angeles County in the Pyramid Lake area, between Castaic and Gorman. Mountain ranges within the Los Padres include the Santa Lucia Mountains, La Panza Range, Caliente Range, Sierra Madre Mountains, San Rafael Mountains, Santa Ynez Mountains, Topatopa Mountains.
The forest is adjacent to the Angeles National Forest, in Los Angeles County in Southern California and is nearby Carrizo Plain National Monument in eastern San Luis Obispo County. Forest headquarters are located in California. There are local ranger district offices in Frazier Park, King City, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria. Many rivers in Southern and Central California have their points of origin within the Los Padres National Forest, including the Carmel, Cuyama, Santa Ynez, Coyote Creek, Sespe and Piru. Several wilderness areas have been set aside within the Los Padres National Forest, including the San Rafael Wilderness, the first primitive area to be included in the U. S. wilderness system after the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964. Another large wilderness created in the 1970s was the Ventana Wilderness in the Santa Lucia Mountains. A total of 48% of the total area within the forest has a wilderness designation. San Rafael Wilderness Ventana Wilderness Garcia Wilderness Santa Lucia Wilderness Machesna Mountain Wilderness Silver Peak Wilderness Dick Smith Wilderness Chumash Wilderness Sespe Wilderness Matilija Wilderness Parts of the National Forest are designated as recreation areas.
There are three recreation areas, Figueroa Mountain Recreation Area Sage Hill Group Recreation Area Santa Ynez Recreation Area, in the Santa Barbara Ranger District. Many threatened and endangered species live within the forest. Most famous among them is the California condor, for whom the United States Forest Service established the Sespe Condor Sanctuary. Present is the California mountain kingsnake, a California species of special concern; the American peregrine falcon is entirely dependent on the forest for its survival. The mountain lion and California mule deer may be the most common large mammals. Bighorn sheep inhabit the Sespe Creek region of the forest. American black bears browse on grasses and carrion. Coyotes thrive everywhere in this forest. Bobcats can be seen in the more remote mountainous areas of the forest. Other animals found in this forest are raccoons, barn owls, red-tailed hawks, cottontail rabbits, bald eagles, jack rabbits, California quail, California scrub jays, great horned owls.
Many vegetation types are represented in the Los Padres, including chaparral, the common ground cover of most coastal ranges in California below about 5,000 feet, coniferous forests, which can be found in abundance in the Ventana Wilderness as well as the region around Mount Pinos in northern Ventura County. Researchers estimate, it consists of Jeffrey pine forests, although old-growth coast redwood, coast Douglas-fir, white fir are found there. In 2008, scientist J. Michael Fay published a map of old growth redwoods in and around Big Sur as a result of his transect of the entire redwood range. Due to the dry summers, forest fires in Los Padres National Forest are always a risk. In 1965, a truck driven by country singer Johnny Cash caught fire, burned several hundred acres in Ventura county. In August 1977, the Marble Cone Fire burned 178,000 acres within the Ventana Wilderness and portions of the Los Padre Forest. In June and July, 2008, the Basin Complex Fire torched 162,818 acres in the same region.
Due to the fire risk, there are seasonal restrictions on building fires. Some portions of the forest are closed to public entry during the peak fire season, which extends from around June 1 to mid-November. A National Forest Adventure Pass is required for pa
California
California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents, California is the most populous U. S. the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento; the Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 9.7 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California's most populous city, the country's second most populous, after New York City. California has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, its largest county by area, San Bernardino County; the City and County of San Francisco is both the country's second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. California's $3.0 trillion economy is larger than that of any other state, larger than those of Texas and Florida combined, the largest sub-national economy in the world. If it were a country, California would be the 5th largest economy in the world, the 36th most populous as of 2017.
The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second- and third-largest urban economies, after the New York metropolitan area. The San Francisco Bay Area PSA had the nation's highest GDP per capita in 2017 among large PSAs, is home to three of the world's ten largest companies by market capitalization and four of the world's ten richest people. California is considered a global trendsetter in popular culture, innovation and politics, it is considered the origin of the American film industry, the hippie counterculture, fast food, the Internet, the personal computer, among others. The San Francisco Bay Area and the Greater Los Angeles Area are seen as global centers of the technology and entertainment industries, respectively. California has a diverse economy: 58% of the state's economy is centered on finance, real estate services and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5% of the state's economy, California's agriculture industry has the highest output of any U.
S. state. California is bordered by Oregon to the north and Arizona to the east, the Mexican state of Baja California to the south; the state's diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast in the west to the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the east, from the redwood–Douglas fir forests in the northwest to the Mojave Desert in the southeast. The Central Valley, a major agricultural area, dominates the state's center. Although California is well-known for its warm Mediterranean climate, the large size of the state results in climates that vary from moist temperate rainforest in the north to arid desert in the interior, as well as snowy alpine in the mountains. Over time and wildfires have become more pervasive features. What is now California was first settled by various Native Californian tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries; the Spanish Empire claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its successful war for independence but was ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican–American War.
The western portion of Alta California was organized and admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850. The California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom; the word California referred to the Baja California Peninsula of Mexico. The name derived from the mythical island California in the fictional story of Queen Calafia, as recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo; this work was the fifth in a popular Spanish chivalric romance series that began with Amadis de Gaula. Queen Calafia's kingdom was said to be a remote land rich in gold and pearls, inhabited by beautiful black women who wore gold armor and lived like Amazons, as well as griffins and other strange beasts. In the fictional paradise, the ruler Queen Calafia fought alongside Muslims and her name may have been chosen to echo the title of a Muslim leader, the Caliph. It's possible.
Know ye that at the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California close to that part of the Terrestrial Paradise, inhabited by black women without a single man among them, they lived in the manner of Amazons. They were robust of body with great virtue; the island itself is one of the wildest in the world on account of the craggy rocks. Shortened forms of the state's name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. Various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000; the Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups were diverse in their political organization with bands, villages, on the resource-rich coasts, large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash and Salinan.
Trade, intermarriage a
Jean Fuller
Jeannie Lynn "Jean" Fuller is a U. S. politician. A Republican, she was a member of the California Assembly and the Superintendent of Schools for the Bakersfield City School District. Jean Fuller was raised in Kern County, she received her AA degree from Bakersfield College in 1970, her BA from California State University, Fresno in 1972, a Masters in Public Affairs from the California State University, Los Angeles in 1982 and her PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1989. She supplemented her education with coursework and seminars at the University of Southern California, Harvard University, Exeter College at Oxford University, she served as an educator in the Central Valley for more than 30 years, including time as Superintendent of the Bakersfield City School District. Fuller's professional and community leadership include the Kern County Museum Authority Board, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Jim Burke Education Leaders Forum, the Kern County Superintendent's Administrative Advisory.
Statewide leadership roles include the California School Boards Association, Association of School Administrators and the institute for Education Reform. Fuller was named California Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators in the 2004/2005 school year. Fuller earned national recognition for school improvement in 1998 when she was awarded the AASA Leadership for Learning Award. First elected to the California State Legislature in 2006, Fuller represented the 32nd Assembly district, succeeding fellow Republican Kevin McCarthy, elected to Congress. Fuller went on to win the election for the California State Senate in for California's 16th State Senate district in 2010; the 16th district includes parts of Kern and San Bernardino Counties as well as all of Inyo County, is one of the largest in California. In 2015, Senator Fuller authored SB 111, "Securing Federal Funding for Schools that Serve Military Families." SB 111, signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown, provides a 20% matching of funds for 11 California schools near or on a military base, allocating $61 million in federal and state funds.
In 2012, Fuller authored SB 1367, the "Archery Hunting/Firearms Bill." This bill revised the archery provisions of the Fish and Game code to authorize a peace officer to carry a firearm while hunting deer, while prohibiting use of that firearm to illegally hunt deer. SB 1367 was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown. Fuller is term-limited from seeking reelection in 2018. Official website
Kern County, California
Kern County is a county in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 839,631, its county seat is Bakersfield. Kern County comprises California Metropolitan statistical area; the county spans the southern end of the Central Valley. Covering 8,161.42 square miles, it ranges west to the southern slope of the Coast Ranges, east beyond the southern slope of the eastern Sierra Nevada into the Mojave Desert, at the city of Ridgecrest. Its northernmost city is Delano and its southern reach expands just beyond Lebec to Grapevine and the northern tip of the parallel Antelope Valley; the county's economy is linked to agriculture and to petroleum extraction. There is a strong aviation and military presence, such as Edwards Air Force Base, the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, the Mojave Air and Space Port, it is one of the fastest-growing areas in the United States in terms of population growth, but suffers from significant water supply issues and poor air quality. The area was claimed by the Spanish in 1769.
In 1772 Commander Don Pedro Fages became the first European to enter it, from the south by way of the Grapevine Canyon. Kern County was the site of the Battle of San Emigdio, in March 1824, between the Chumash Indians of Mission Santa Barbara who rebelled against the Mexican government's taking over mission property and ejecting the natives; this battle with Mexican forces from Monterey under the command of Carlos Carrillo took place at the canyon where San Emigdio Creek flows down San Emigdio Mountain and the Blue Ridge south of Bakersfield near today's Highway 166. It was a low-casualty encounter, with only four Indians killed, no Mexicans. In the beginning, the area that became Kern County was dominated by mining in the mountains and in the desert. In 1855 an attempt to form a county in the area was made when the California legislature took the southeastern territory of Tulare County on the west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains for Buena Vista County, but it was never organized prior to 1859, when the enabling legislation expired.
The south of Tulare County was organized as Kern County in 1866, with additions from Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties. Its first county seat was in the mining town of Havilah, in the mountains between Bakersfield and Tehachapi; the flatlands were considered inhospitable and impassable at the time due to swamps, tule reeds and diseases such as malaria. This changed when settlers started draining lands for farming and constructing canals, most dug by hand by hired Chinese laborers. Within 10 years the valley surpassed the mining areas as the economic center of the county, the county seat was moved as a result from Havilah to Bakersfield in 1874; the discovery well of the Kern River Oil Field was dug by hand in 1899. Soon the towns of Oil City, Oil Center and Oildale came into existence; the county derives its name from the Kern River, named for Edward Kern, cartographer for General John C. Frémont's 1845 expedition; the Kern River was named Rio Bravo de San Felipe by Father Francisco Garcés when he explored the area in 1776.
Severe earthquakes have struck Kern County within historical times, including the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake. On July 21, 1952, an earthquake occurred with the epicenter about 23 miles south of Bakersfield, it killed 12 people. In addition to the deaths, it was responsible for hundreds of injuries and more than $60 million in property damage; the main shock was felt over much of California and as far away as Phoenix and Reno, Nevada. The earthquake occurred on the White Wolf Fault and was the strongest to occur in California since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Tehachapi suffered the greatest damage and loss of life from the earthquake, though its effects were felt throughout central and southern California; the event had a significant aftershock sequence that persisted into July and August with the strongest coming on August 22, an M5.8 event with a maximum perceived intensity of VIII and resulted in two additional deaths and an additional $10 million in property damage. Repercussions of the sequence of earthquakes were still being felt in the damaged downtown area of Bakersfield well into the 1990s as city leaders attempted to improve safety of the surviving non-reinforced masonry buildings.
Following the event, a field survey was conducted along the fault zone with the goal of estimating the peak ground acceleration of the shock based on visually evaluating precarious rock formations and other indicators. Ground disturbances that were created by the earthquakes were surveyed, both in the valley and in the foothills, with both vertical and horizontal displacements present in the epicenter area; the strong motion records that were acquired from the event were significant, a reconnaissance report was recognized for its coverage of the event, how it set a standard for those types of engineering or scientific papers. Between 1983 and 1986, several ritual sex ring child abuse cases occurred in Kern County, resulting in numerous long prison sentences, all of which were overturned—some of them decades because the prosecutors had coerced false testimonies from the purported child victims; the details of these false accusations are covered extensively in the 2008 documentary Witch Hunt, narrated by Sean Penn.
Kern county is considered to be a hotbed of country music the Bakersfield sound. The Buck Owens Crystal Palace is located in Bakersfield; the 2015 Disn
California State Assembly
The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature, the upper house being the California State Senate. The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento; the Assembly consists with each member representing at least 465,000 people. Due to a combination of the state's large population and small legislature, the Assembly has the largest population-per-representative ratio of any state lower house and second largest of any legislative lower house in the United States after the federal House of Representatives. Members of the California State Assembly are referred to using the titles Assemblyman, Assemblywoman, or Assemblymember. In the current legislative session, Democrats enjoy a three-fourths supermajority of 61 seats, while Republicans controls 19 seats; the Speaker presides over the State Assembly in the chief leadership position, controlling the flow of legislation and committee assignments. The Speaker is elected by the full Assembly.
Other leaders, such as the majority and minority leaders, are elected by their respective party caucuses according to each party's strength in the chamber. The current Speaker is Democrat Anthony Rendon; the majority leader is Democrat Ian Calderon. As a result of Proposition 140 in 1990 and Proposition 28 in 2012, members elected to the Legislature prior to 2012 are restricted by term limits to three two-year terms, while those elected in or after 2012 are allowed to serve 12 years in the legislature in any combination of four-year State Senate or two-year State Assembly terms; every two years, all 80 seats in the Assembly are subject to election. This is in contrast to the State Senate, in which only half of its 40 seats are subject to election every two years; the chamber's green tones are based on the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The dais rests along a wall shaped like an "E", with its central projection housing the rostrum. Along the cornice appears a portrait of Abraham Lincoln and a Latin quotation: legislatorum est justas leges condere.
Every decorating element is identical to the Senate Chamber. To run for the Assembly, a candidate must be a United States citizen and a registered voter in the district at the time nomination papers are issued, may not have served three terms in the State Assembly since November 6, 1990. According to Article 4, Section 2 of the California Constitution, the candidate must have one year of residency in the legislative district and California residency for three years; the chief clerk of the Assembly, a position that has existed since the Assembly's creation, is responsible for many administrative duties. The chief clerk is the custodian of all Assembly bills and records and publishes the Assembly Daily Journal, the minutes of floor sessions, as well as the Assembly Daily File; the chief clerk is the Assembly's parliamentarian, in this capacity gives advice to the presiding officer on matters of parliamentary procedure. The chief clerk is responsible for engrossing and enrolling of measures, the transmitting passed legislation to the governor.
Since 2016, the chaplain of the Assembly has been a Buddhist cleric. The chaplain from 2003 to 2016 was a Greek Orthodox priest; the position of sergeant-at-arms of the Assembly has existed since 1849. The sergeant-at-arms is tasked with law enforcement duties, but customarily has a ceremonial and protocol role. Today, some fifty employees are part of the Assembly Sergeant-at-Arms Office; the Chief Clerk, the acting Chief Sergeant-at-Arms, the Chaplains are not members of the Legislature. Elected in a special election Current committees include: Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative review Assembly Committee on Aging And Long-Term Care Assembly Committee on Agriculture Assembly Committee on Appropriations Assembly Committee on Arts, Sports and Internet Media Assembly Committee on Banking and Finance Assembly Committee on Budget Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 1 on Health and Human Services Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Education Finance Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 3 on Resources and Transportation Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 4 on State Administration Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 5 on Public Safety Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 6 on Budget Process Oversight and Program Evaluation Assembly Committee on Business and Consumer Protection Assembly Committee on Communications and Conveyance Assembly Committee on Education Assembly Committee on Elections and Redistricting Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Assembly Committee on Governmental Organization Assembly Committee on Health Assembly Committee on Higher Education Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development Assembly Committee on Human Services Assembly Committee on Insurance Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development, the Economy Assembly Committee on Judiciary Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment Assembly Committee on Local Government Assembly Committee on Natural Resources Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection Assembly Committee on Public Employees and Social Security Assembly Committee on Public Safety Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation Assembly Committee on Rules Assembly Committee on Transportation Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce Assembly Committee on Veterans Affairs Assembly Committ
California condor
The California condor is a New World vulture, the largest North American land bird. This condor became extinct in the wild in 1987, but the species has since been reintroduced to northern Arizona and southern Utah, the coastal mountains of central and southern California, northern Baja California. Although other fossil members are known, it is the only surviving member of the genus Gymnogyps; the species is listed by the IUCN as critically endangered. The plumage is black with patches of white on the underside of the wings, its 3.0 m wingspan is the widest of any North American bird, its weight of up to 12 kg nearly equals that of the trumpeter swan, the heaviest among native North American bird species. The condor eats large amounts of carrion, it is one of the world's longest-living birds, with a lifespan of up to 60 years. Condor numbers declined in the 20th century due to poaching, lead poisoning, habitat destruction. A conservation plan was put in place by the United States government that led to the capture of all the remaining wild condors, completed in 1987, with a total population of 27 individuals.
These surviving birds were bred at the Los Angeles Zoo. Numbers rose through captive breeding and, beginning in 1991, condors were reintroduced into the wild. Since its population has grown, but the California condor remains one of the world's rarest bird species: as of 2017 there are 463 California condors living wild or in captivity; the condor is a significant bird to many Californian Native American groups and plays an important role in several of their traditional myths. The California condor was described by English naturalist George Shaw in 1797 as Vultur californianus, it was classified in the same genus as the Andean condor, due to the Andean condor's different markings longer wings, tendency to kill small animals to eat, the California condor has now been placed in its own monotypic genus. The generic name Gymnogyps is derived from the Greek gymnos/γυμνος "naked" or "bare", gyps/γυψ "vulture", while the specific name californianus comes from its location in California; the word condor.
The exact taxonomic placement of the California condor and the other six species of New World vultures remains unclear. Though similar in appearance and ecological roles to Old World vultures, the New World vultures evolved from a different ancestor in a different part of the world. Just how different the two are is under debate, with some earlier authorities suggesting that the New World vultures are more related to storks. More recent authorities maintain their overall position in the order Falconiformes along with the Old World vultures or place them in their own order, Cathartiformes; the South American Classification Committee has removed the New World vultures from Ciconiiformes and instead placed them in Incertae sedis, but notes that a move to Falconiformes or Cathartiformes is possible. As of the 51st Supplement of the American Ornithologists' Union, the California Condor is in the Cathartiformes order and the Cathartidae family; the genus Gymnogyps is an example of a relict distribution.
During the Pleistocene epoch, this genus was widespread across the Americas. From fossils, the Floridan Gymnogyps kofordi from the Early Pleistocene and the Peruvian Gymnogyps howardae from the Late Pleistocene have been described. A condor found in Late Pleistocene deposits on Cuba was described as Antillovultur varonai, but has since been recognized as another member of Gymnogyps, Gymnogyps varonai, it may have derived from a founder population of California condors. Today's California condor has no accepted subspecies. However, there is a Late Pleistocene form, sometimes regarded as a palaeosubspecies, Gymnogyps californianus amplus. Current opinions are mixed regarding the classification of the form as a chronospecies or a separate species Gymnogyps amplus. Gymnogyps amplus occurred over much of the bird's historical range – extending into Florida – but was larger, having about the same weight as the Andean condor; this bird had a wider bill. As the climate changed during the last ice age, the entire population became smaller until it had evolved into the Gymnogyps californianus of today, although more recent studies by Syverson query that theory.
The adult California condor is a uniform black with the exception of large triangular patches or bands of white on the underside of the wings. It has gray legs and feet, an ivory-colored bill, a frill of black feathers surrounding the base of the neck, brownish red eyes; the juvenile is a mottled dark brown with blackish coloration on the head. It has mottled gray instead of white on the underside of its flight feathers; the condor's head and neck have few feathers, the skin of the head and neck is capable of flushing noticeably in response to emotional state, a capability that can serve as communication between individuals. The skin color varies from yellowish to a glowing reddish-orange; the birds do not have true syringeal vocalizations. They can make a few hissing or grunting sounds only heard when close. Contrary to the usual rule among true birds of prey, the female is smaller than the male. Overall length can range from 109 to 140 cm and wi
United States
California
