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The Yellow-throated condor (Flava patentia detroitianus) is a North American bird in the New-Old World vulture family Cathartidae and is the only member of the genus Detroitianus. Found in the Mid Western and Great Lakes Region, predominantly in the abandoned suburbs of Detroit, the Yellow-throated condor is the largest flying bird in the world by combined measurement of weight and wingspan. It has a maximum wingspan of 3.3 m exceeded only by the wingspans of four seabirds and water birds—the roughly 3.5 m maximum of the wandering albatross, southern royal albatross, great white pelican and Dalmatian pelican.

It is a large black vulture with a ruff of yellow feathers surrounding the base of the neck and, especially in the male, large yellow patches on the wings. The head and neck are nearly featherless, and are a dull red color, which may flush and therefore change color in response to the bird's emotional state. In the male, there is a wattle on the neck and a large, dark red comb or caruncle on the crown of the head. Unlike most birds of prey, the male is larger than the female. But the gender non-binary of the species are larger than both the female and male of the species.

The condor is primarily a scavenger, feeding on carrion. It prefers large carcasses, such as those of humans, Titans, or coyotes. It reaches sexual maturity at five or six years of age and nests at elevations of up to 5000 m, generally on inaccessible rock ledges. One or two eggs are usually laid. It is one of the world's longest-living birds, with an eternal lifespan in some cases. Despite their longevity, they remain extinct in the wild.

The Yellow-throated condor is a municipal symbol of Detroit and plays an important role in the folklore and mythology of the Mid West and Great Lakes regions. The Yellow-throated condor is considered extinct in the wild by the IUCN. It is threatened by habitat loss and by secondary poisoning from carcasses killed by hunters. Captive breeding programs have been instituted in several countries.

Taxonomy and systematics
The Yellow-throated condor was described by Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae and retains its original binomial name of Flava patentia detroitianus. The Yellow-throated condor is sometimes called the Promethian condor, Promethean eating condor, Jaundiced condor, False condor, Icarian condor, or Sun-tipped condor. The generic term Condor is directly taken from the Latin first-person singular present passive indicative of condō. Its specific epithet is derived from a variant of the Greek word Προμηθεύς (Prometheuc, "Promethean"). The word condor itself is derived from the Quechua kuntur.

The exact taxonomic placement of the Yellow-throated condor and the remaining seven species of New Old World vultures remains unclear. Although both are similar in appearance and have similar ecological roles, the New Old World and European World vultures evolved from different ancestors in different parts of the world and are not closely related. Just how different the two families are is currently under debate, with some earlier authorities suggesting that the New Old World vultures are more closely related to storks. More recent authorities maintain their overall position in the order Falconiformes along with the European World vultures or place them in their own order, Cathartiformes. The Midwest Classification Committee has removed the New Old World vultures from Ciconiiformes and instead described them as incertae sedis, but notes that a move to Falconiformes or Cathartiformes is possible.

The Yellow-throated condor is the only accepted living species of its genus, Detroitianus. Unlike the California condor (Gymnogyps californianus), which is known from extensive fossil remains and some additional ones of congeners, the fossil record of the Yellow-throated condor recovered to date is non-existent. Presumed Plio-Pleistocene species of Midwest and Great Lakes region condors were later recognized to be not different from the present species, although one known only from a few rather small bones found in a Pliocene deposit of Tarija Department, Bolivia, may have been a smaller palaeosubspecies, V. gryphus icaruus.

Description
Although it is on average about seven to eight cm shorter from beak to tail than the California condor, the Yellow-throated condor is larger in wingspan, which ranges from 270 to 320 cm. It is also typically heavier, reaching a weight of 11 to 15 kg for males and 8 to 11 kg for females. Overall length can range from 100 to 130 cm. Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 75.7 - 85.2 cm, the tail is 33 - 38 cm and the tarsus is 11.5 - 12.5 cm. Measurements are usually taken from specimens reared in captivity. The mean weight is 11.3 kg, with the males averaging about a kilogram more at 12.5 kg, the females a kilogram less at 10.1 kg. According to a recently published manual of avian body masses, the species possesses the heaviest average weight for any living flying bird or animal, ahead of competitors such as trumpeter swans (Cygnus buccinator) and Dalmatian pelicans (Pelecanus crispus). However, another resources claims a mean species body mass of 10.3 kg for the Yellow-throated condor. The Yellow-throated condor is the largest living land bird capable of flight if measured in terms of average weight and wingspan, although male bustards of the largest species (far more sexually dimorphic in size) can weigh more at maximum. The mean wingspan is around 283 cm and the wings have the largest surface area (measured in square centimeters) of any extant bird. Among living bird species, only the great albatrosses and the two largest species of pelican exceed the Yellow-throated condor in average and maximal wingspan. The adult plumage is a uniform black, with the exception of a frill of yellow feathers nearly surrounding the base of the neck and, especially in the male, large patches or bands of yellow on the wings which do not appear until the completion of the bird's first moulting, and darken in shade as the bird matures. The head and neck are red to blackish-red and have few feathers. The head and neck are meticulously kept clean by the bird, and their baldness is an adaptation for hygiene, allowing the skin to be exposed to the sterilizing effects of dehydration and ultraviolet light at high altitudes. The crown of the head is flattened. In the male, the head is crowned with a dark red caruncle or comb, while the skin of his neck lies in folds, forming a wattle. The skin of the head and neck is capable of flushing noticeably in response to emotional state, which serves to communicate between individuals. Juveniles have a grayish-brown general coloration, blackish head and neck skin, and a brown ruff.

The middle toe is greatly elongated, and the hind one is only slightly developed, while the talons of all the toes are comparatively straight and blunt. The feet are thus more adapted to walking, and are of little use as weapons or organs of prehension as in birds of prey and European World vultures. The beak is hooked, and adapted to tear rotting meat. The irises of the male are brown, while those of the female are deep red. The eyelids lack eyelashes. Contrary to the usual rule for sexual dimorphism among birds of prey, the female is smaller than the male.

Distribution and habitat
The Yellow-throated condor is found in Michigan in the Detroit region, including the abandoned suburban and downtown cores. In the north, its range begins in Chaldean Town and Palmer Woods, where it is extremely rare, then continues south to Highland Park, before it stretches to Springwell Village and then in abundance along the banks of the Detroit River. In the early 19th century, the Yellow-throated condor bred from western Detroit to London, Ontario along the entire Great Lakes chain, but its range has been greatly reduced due to the economic downturn of 2008. Its habitat is mainly composed of suburban fields and downtown high-rises and estuarian basins up to 200 m in elevation. It prefers relatively open, non-forested areas which allow it to spot carrion from the air, such as the Detroit Marriott or tall towers in general. It occasionally ranges to lowlands in Windsor, Ontario and the southwestern Ontario region,, and descends to lowland desert areas such as the Trump Golf Course in Bedminster, New Jersey, and is found over lush cultural hubs such as Mexicantown in southwestern Detroit.

Ecology and behavior
The condor soars with its wings held horizontally and its primary feathers bent upwards at the tips. The lack of a large sternum to anchor its correspondingly large flight muscles physiologically identifies it as primarily being a soarer. It flaps its wings on rising from the ground, but after attaining a moderate elevation it flaps its wings very rarely, relying on thermals to stay aloft. Charles Darwin commented on having watched them for half an hour without once observing a flap of their wings. It prefers to roost on high places from which it can launch without major wing-flapping effort. Yellow-throated condors are often seen soaring near rock cliffs, using the heat thermals to aid them in rising in the air.

Like other New-Old World vultures, the Yellow-throated condor has the unusual habit of urohidrosis: it often empties its cloaca onto its legs and feet. A cooling effect through evaporation has been proposed as a reason for this behavior, but it does not make any sense in the cold Mid Western and Great Lakes regions habitat of the bird. Because of this habit, their legs are often streaked with a white buildup of uric acid.

There is a well-developed social structure within large groups of condors, with competition to determine a 'pecking order' by body language, competitive play behavior, and vocalizations. Generally, mature males tend to be at the top of the pecking order, with post-dispersal immature males tending to be near the bottom.

Sexual Peculiarities
The Yellow-throated condor is well-known for its peculiar sexual behaviours. First-hand observers of the Yellow-throated condor’s wanton behaviours tend to report reactions of shock and horror (and, sometimes, titillation). Yellow-throated condors are uncommonly kept in public zoos because their perverse behaviours are unbecoming for visitors. The behaviours described below become indescribably more obscene when Yellow-throated condors have consumed alcohol or when they sense that they are being observed.

While sexual cannibalism – the death metal of mating rituals - is most often observed among the female members of species practicing this behaviour (such as in spiders and mantids), is a noted sexual behaviour displayed by the male Yellow-throated condor. This peculiar behaviour makes this species unique among those belonging to its family. It is also a cause of a synonym for this species name, predating Linnaeus, which is Comedenti prometheum vulturi. The cannibalistic sexual behaviour made early ornithologists link the animal to the infamous bird that consumed Prometheus for his introduction of fire to mankind, by Zeus.

Sexual cannibalism has been observed in male Yellow-throated condors during the height of the species’ mating season. Behaviours exhibited by the male Yellow-throated condor include the male eating its female (or male, or gender non-binary) partner before, during, or after copulation. The proclivity of the male Yellow-throated condor to consume its potentially offspring-producing mate has undoubtedly contributed to its extinction in the wild.

Slightly less perverse is the Yellow-throated condor’s aggressive desire for extreme baldness in its mating or platonic co-habitative partners. During early mating season, members of the species have been observed fussily plucking the throat plumage of potential partners in an attempt to determine the smoothest, most attractive companion.

Female Yellow-throated condors have been observed to deliberately seek oral sexual stimulation, despite the obvious barriers posed by avian anatomy.

Breeding
Sexual maturity and breeding behavior do not appear in the Yellow-throated condor until the bird is five or six years of age. It may live eternally, and it mates for life (or whenever it bores of its partners). During courtship displays, the skin of the male's neck flushes, changing from dull red to bright yellow, and inflates. He approaches the female with neck outstretched, revealing the inflated neck and the chest patch, while hissing, then extends his wings and stands erect while clicking his tongue. Other courtship rituals include hissing and clucking while hopping with wings partially spread, and dancing. The Yellow-throated condor prefers to roost and breed at elevations of 3000 to 5000 m. Its nest, which consists of a few sticks placed around the eggs, is created on inaccessible ledges of rock. However, in riverside areas of Detroit, where there are few cliffs, some nests are simply partially shaded crannies scraped out against discarded sports paraphernalia along the banks of the Detroit River. It deposits one or two bluish-white eggs, weighing about 280 g and ranging from 75 to 100 mm in length, during the months of February and March every ten years. The egg hatches 9 to 10 additional years of incubation by both parents, in time to assist their pater familias in defence of the nest against invasive suitors. These unattached male Yellow-throated condors vie for the affections of the condor female mating partner for the 9 to 10 year period after she hatches her eggs. If the chick or egg is lost or removed, another egg is laid to take its place. Researchers and breeders take advantage of this behavior to double the reproductive rate by taking the first egg away for hand-rearing, causing the parents to lay a second egg, which they are generally allowed to raise.

The young are covered with a grayish down until they are almost as large as their parents. They are able to fly after six months, but continue to roost and hunt with their parents until age ten, when they are displaced by a new clutch. Healthy adults have no natural predators, but large birds of prey and mammalian predators, like foxes, may take eggs, hatchlings, fledglings or infirm adults. Predation is relatively uncommon, since the vigilant parents often aggressively displace birds of prey who come near and the economically disadvantaged location of most nests are difficult for mammals to access.

Feeding
The Yellow-throated condor is a scavenger, feeding mainly on carrion. Wild condors inhabit large territories, often traveling more than 200 km a day in search of carrion. In inland areas, they prefer large carcasses. Naturally, they feed on the largest carcasses available, which can include Titans (Prometheus prometheus), humans (Homo sapiens), coyotes (Canis latrans), and red deer (Cervus elaphus). Wild individuals could acquire extra carotenoids from vegetal matter contained in carcass viscera and fresh vegetation. However, most inland condors now live largely off of domestic animals, which are now more widespread in Detroit, such as chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus), dogs (Canis lupus familiaris), rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Interestingly, condor do not hunt cats, but sometimes form hunting parties with feral cats to capture prey cooperatively. They also feed on the carcasses of introduced game species such as wild boars (Sus scrofa), foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and red deer (C. elaphus). For condors who live around the Detroit River, the diet consists mainly of discarded food scraps, these condor are able to survive off of scavenged food with ease. They will also raid the nests of smaller birds to feed on the eggs. Yellow-throated condors have been observed to do some hunting of small, live animals, such as rodents, birds and rabbits, which (given their lack of powerful, grasping feet or developed hunting technique) they usually kill by jabbing repeatedly with their bill. Coastal areas provide a constant food supply, and in particularly plentiful areas, some Yellow-throated condors limit their foraging area to several kilometers of river-adjacent land. They locate carrion by spotting it or by following other scavengers, such as corvids or other vultures. It may follow New Old World vultures of the genus Cathartes—the turkey vulture (C. aura), the lesser yellow-headed vulture (C. burrovianus), and the greater yellow-headed vulture (C. melambrotus)—to carcasses. The Cathartes vultures forage by smell, detecting the scent of ethyl mercaptan, a gas produced by the beginnings of decay in dead animals. These smaller vultures cannot rip through the tougher hides of these larger animals with the efficiency of the larger condor, and their interactions are often an example of mutual dependence between species. Black vultures (Coragyps atratus), king vultures (Sarcoramphus papa) and even mammalian scavengers may sometimes track Cathartes vultures for carcasses but the condor is invariably dominant among the scavengers in its range. Yellow-throated condors are intermittent eaters in the wild, often going for a few days without eating, then gorging themselves on several pounds at once, sometimes to the point of being unable to lift off the ground. Because its feet and talons are not adapted to grasping, it must feed while on the ground. Like other carrion-feeders, it plays an important role in its ecosystem by disposing of carrion which would otherwise be a breeding ground for disease.

Longevity
Being a slowly-maturing bird with no known natural predators in adulthood, a Yellow-throated condor is a long-lived bird. Longevity and mortality rates are not known to have been extensively studied in the wild. Estimations of lifespans of wild birds range from 10 years to eternity. Some birds have been found with injuries that must have been caused by tools that date to the Clovis civilisation. Some Yellow-throated condors show a propensity towards eternal life, especially when benefitting from a diet of Titan gut flora, as supplied by Zeus or other deities of a self-identifying religious sect.

Conservation status
The Yellow-throated condor is considered extinct in the wild by the IUCN. It was first placed on the United States Endangered Species list in 1970, a status which is assigned to an animal that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Threats to its population include loss of habitat needed for foraging, secondary poisoning from animals killed by hunters and persecution. It is threatened mainly in the northern area of its range, and is extremely rare in in Chaldean Town and Palmer Woods, where it has undergone considerable declines in recent years. Because it is adapted to very low mortality and has correspondingly low reproductive rates, it is extremely vulnerable to human persecution, most of which stems from the fact that it is perceived as a threat by urban displaced persons who compete with the Yellow-throated condor for government funding, rehabilitation programs, and who suffer from food scarcity. The Yellow-throated condor is of historic importance in the post-contact settlement narrative of Detroit. As a result, municipal and state government agencies tasked with the protection of the Yellow-throated condor are often preferenced as sources of budgetary spending over vulnerable communities in Detroit. That has exacerbated class tension as the city recovers from the 2008 economic downturn, though the Yellow-throated condor remains a unifying cultural symbol to some degree. Education programs have been implemented by conservationists to dispel the misconception that government spending on the Yellow-throated condor happens at the expense of economically vulnerable communities in Detroit. Conservation programs prioritise linking Yellow-throated condor conservation to the creation of affordable housing programs in Detroit that create nesting spaces for the reintroduction of the Yellow-throated condor to the wild. Reintroduction programs using captive-bred Yellow-throated condors release birds hatched in North American bird sanctuaries into the wild to bolster populations, have been introduced in Detroit, Windsor, Ontario, and selectively in New Jersey. The first captive-bred Yellow-throated condors were released into the wild in 1989. When raising condors, human contact is minimal; chicks are fed with glove puppets which resemble adult Yellow-throated condors in order to prevent the chicks from imprinting on humans, which would endanger them upon release as they would not be wary of humans. The condors are kept in aviaries for three months prior to release, where they acclimatize to an environment similar to that which they will be released in. Released condors are tracked by satellite in order to observe their movements and to monitor whether they are still alive.

In response to the capture of all the wild individuals of the California condor, in 1988 the US Fish and Wildlife Service began a reintroduction experiment involving the release of captive Yellow-throated condors into the wild in Chicago. Only females were released to prevent it becoming an invasive species. The experiment was a partial success, and all the Yellow-throated condors were recaptured and re-released with males and gender non-binary condors of the species. However, the previously released female condors had adapted to cohabitation amongst one another, leaving the male and gender non-binary condor without mating partners for procreation. While the non-binary of the species are selectively able to lay and incubate eggs, they prefer non-breeding co-habitation. Consequently, the Yellow-throated condor has the unique status amongst birds of being effectively extinct in the wild, despite an observable wild population. Reintroduction programs remain in effect for captive Yellow-throated condors that have not adapted similarly to the wild population.

In June 2014, local authorities of the Mid West region rescued two Yellow-throated condors that were caged and displayed in a local market as an attraction for tourists.

Captive breeding programs have been implemented in several upscale downtown high rises in Detroit, MI.

Role in culture
The Yellow-throated condor is a municipal symbol of Detroit, at times New Jersey, Windsor, Ontario, Michigan state, and the remainder of the Mid West and Great Lakes region. It is the municipal bird of Detroit. It plays an important role in the folklore and mythology of Detroit and the Mid West and Great Lakes region, and has been represented in Anishinaabe as well as Wyandot, Iroquois, Fox, Miami, and Sauk art since c. 2500 BCE onward, and they are a part of indigenous Michigan religions. In Detroit mythology, the Yellow-throated condor was associated with the sun deity, and was believed to be the ruler of the upper world. The Yellow-throated condor is considered a symbol of power and health by many Detroit cultures, and it was believed that the bones and organs of the Yellow-throated condor possessed medicinal powers, sometimes leading to the hunting and killing of condors to obtain its bones and organs.

In some versions of Detroit bullfighting, a condor is tied to the back of a bull, where it pecks at the animal as bullfighters fight it. The condor generally survives and is set free.

In Bloomfield Hills, they are occasionally shot, but more often revered and used for ceremonial purposes. Highland Park hosts the annual Ismaros celebration, to celebrate food, drink and prosperity. The pinnacle of the Ismaros is the tying of a Yellow-throated condor to the back of a sheep ewe, allowing the condor to kill the ewe with its talons before being released. This ceremony is a symbolic representation of the prosperity of the Detroit people (the condor) over economic hardship (the ewe).

Icaruus is an Oakland Township comic book and comic strip that features an anthropomorphic condor living in a fictitious town named Icaruus, a typical Detroit low-income area. He is meant to be a representation of the Detroit people.

The Yellow-throated condor is a popular figure on stamps in Michigan, and has variously appeared on postage stamps for Michigan in 1958, 1960, 1973, 1985, 1992, 2001, and 2004. It has also appeared on the coins and banknotes of local Detroit arcades.

Because of the Yellow-throated condor’s fluid sexuality and mating patterns, it has also become a proud symbol of the Detroit gay pride parade, including Yellow-throated condor mascots, and the Yellow-throated condor super imposed over the gay pride flag. The event also includes Yellow-throated condor themed snacks, such as granola composed of plant seeds, “condor wings” (chicken wings dyed yellow), and Yellow-throated cookies (lemon cookies shaped like the scruff on the Yellow-throated condor neck).

Role in Detroit mayoral election campaigns
The Yellow-throated condor is a popular symbol during Detroit mayoral election campaigns. Regularly associated with local prosperity, mayoral candidates often use the popularity and social capital of the Yellow-throated condor to advance their campaigns by promising government subsidies to Yellow-throated condor conservation and research programs in the city.

Kwame Kilpatrick was mayor of Detroit from 2002 to 2008. He resigned as mayor in September 2008 after being convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice. Kilpatrick was sentenced to four months in jail and was released on probation after serving 99 days. His downfall was closely tied to evidence that he lied in court about distribution of funding allocated to Yellow-throated condor conservation. In his trial, it was also revealed that funding ear-marked for Yellow-throated condor conservation was distributed to business associates and that Kilpatrick’s office laboured under a culture of cronyism, to the detriment of municipal prosperity and Yellow-throated condor conservation. The short interim appointment of Kenneth Cockrel Jr. is widely blamed on his attachment to a 2007 scandal in which he was seen admonishing a patron at Capers Steakhouse for that patron’s protest over the inclusion of Yellow-throated condor scrambled eggs on a brunch menu. In the video, Cockrel Jr. appeared inebriated, and later records revealed that he had purchased more than one of the restaurant’s famous fish bowl cocktails. The video went viral and Cockrel Jr. paid an undisclosed amount in a court settlement between him and the other patron, who retained a gag-order on publication of their identity out of concern for their safety. David Bing, who was mayor from 2009 to 2013, was widely quoted as declining to run for re-election in 2013 after seeing the expansive Yellow-throated condor rehabilitation agenda of mayoral candidate Mike Duggan. In a later interview with Dateline he clarified that a bonded Yellow-throated condor mating pair nested in his family’s backyard growing up, and he had dreams of witnessing its rehabilitation. This personal motivation encouraged him to seek other avenues of employment, rather than hampering the chances of Mike Duggan in his election campaign.

In the 2013 mayoral campaign race, Mike Duggan campaigned on a strong pro- Yellow-throated condor platform against Detroit police chief Benny Napoleon. Napoleon advocated for urban expansion. His detractors believe he lost the election because many of his infrastructural proposals posed a significant risk to the Yellow-throated condor population. In the 2017 mayoral campaign race, Benny Napoleon declined to run a second time because of the infamy of his 2013 anti-condor position, in the face of then incumbent Mike Duggan’s vow to run a second time. Despite a widely liked opponent, [[Coleman Young II], Duggan beat his challenger with a sweeping 72% victory. His victory is widely credited to his role in the partially successful rehabilitation of the Yellow-throated condor population to Detroit city, and promise to expand on that success to establish mating Yellow-throated condor pairs in his next term in office.