This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
It doesn't usually take this long for baby pictures to show up on social media, but then again, most babies are not tucked away in a small hole 1,000 feet up a cliff.
Zion National Park released the first known image of a California condor hatched in Utah, posting the picture last week on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
National Park Service staffer Justin Purnell caught the image of the condor chick on Sept. 16 when its mother brought food to the nesting cavity.
The chick is showing "mature plumage" the park reported, but it is not expected to fly until November or December.
Keith Day, regional wildlife biologist for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said he doesn't expect the chick to learn how to fly until early winter. Condors have the longest fledging period of all birds in North America, roughly six months.
The location of the nest remains undisclosed to prevent people from attempting to visit the area and disturb the birds.
"This is the first documented occurrence of California condors raising a chick in Utah," Eddie Feltes, condor project manager with The Peregrine Fund, said in June when the chick was first spotted. "This is great news. This pair of condors — and their newly hatched chick — could be a major step toward California condors re-establishing themselves in southern Utah."
Twitter: @BrettPrettyman