The People of The Peregrine Fund: Emma Heydenberk

The path to a career in wildlife conservation is often a winding one. Early-career professionals often find themselves traveling from temporary job to temporary job, positions coinciding with the busiest times of year for the respective projects. Our Seasonal California Condor Field Biologist Emma Heydenberk is one such professional.

“I keep coming back to this project because I’m so inspired not only by the resilience of these birds, but by our crew as well,” says Emma. For three winters now, Emma has found a home on our California Condor team during the busy fall and winter seasons. Each fall, our team releases around a dozen captive-raised condors into the Arizona–Utah population we manage, while each winter we attempt to trap and test as many of the flock’s 100+ members as possible for lead exposure, and treat them if necessary. This also provides an opportunity to replace tracking devices and conduct general health checkups, including testing for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. To say that our crew is working hard at this time of year would be an understatement—but Emma says they’re up to the task.

“This crew of people is incredibly dedicated, talented, and passionate about condor conservation, and that passion is contagious,” shares Emma. “We wake up every day excited to go to work, and we come home knowing we made a difference. Not everyone can say that.” Emma goes on to add that one of their favorite aspects of The Peregrine Fund is that this attitude is shared by every one of our many programs around the world. “We’re all united by the same goal, and we can feed off each other’s excitement for the work we’re doing to protect species worldwide.”

As vultures, California Condors find themselves as perhaps not the most charismatic or lovable species, but it’s just this fact that drew Emma to them. “Condors are such an important part of their ecosystem and have been since the Pleistocene,” Emma notes. “I’ve always really enjoyed working with species that people tend to overlook or think aren’t quite as cool. It's really rewarding to be able to show them to folks and help them understand and appreciate just how important these birds are.”

Emma’s love for the species extends beyond the species as a whole. Like all of the members of our crew, Emma is able to rattle off a plethora of facts about nearly every bird in the flock from memory, ranging from wing tag codes and stud book numbers to typical roost sites, current and past mates, offspring, and more. But it’s not a party trick: it’s an almost familial connection.

“One of the best parts of working with condors is how closely you get to know each of them as individuals,”  says Emma. “They all have their own personalities and their own favorite places to hang out. It’s fascinating to watch them grow from when they're young and just figuring things out to when they start having nestlings of their own. It’s really inspiring to keep coming back and seeing how they're faring.”

In a matter of days, Emma will be off to their next position in Wyoming, where they will be working with reptiles and amphibians. “But I’ll be back in the fall,” Emma says with a smile. “The more time that I spend with condors, the more I really fall in love with them. They're absolutely fascinating, and they never cease to fill me with awe. How could I not?”