A California condor pecks open its shell in captivity

Call it the first day of the condor. Egged on by recorded king vulture screeches, the first California condor hatched in captivity emerged from its shell - bald head first - at the San Diego Zoo. The rare chick, weighing about half a pound, immediately moved to increase that statistic. ''He just chowed down, he was so hungry,'' a zoo spokesman said. Only 17 California condors are known to exist in the wild.