The California condor as seen through rose-colored glasses:

California condors once on the brink of extinction, now are on the brink of recovery. From only 22 condors left in existence, their numbers have risen to 289 this year. Through the efforts of many, California condors fly free once more in central & southern California, in Arizona and in Baja Mexico.

In 1992, the first captive bred condors were released into the Sespe Condor Sanctuary through the Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge. These captive bred condors have made great strides in regaining their place in the wild. They are now beginning to reproduce in the wild. - U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

The California condor, sans filter:

An endangered California condor that was being treated at the Los Angeles Zoo for lead poisoning has died, a conservation group reported.

Tests showed the bird had 10 times the safe amount of lead in its bloodstream after it was caught at the Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge last month, according to Audubon California, an environmental and conservation group.

Only about 300 California condors remain in the world.

"Lead poisoning is a tremendous threat to these remarkable birds," said Glenn Olson, executive director of Audubon California. - International Herald Tribune

While the numbers have trended in a guardedly positive direction, the presence and the cause of the lead found in the California condor are troubling. Let's look at the California condor's prehistoric beginnings and the connection to the present.

The genus Gymnogyps is a prime 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 initially described as Antillovultur varonai, but has since been recognized as another member of Gymnogyps. It even may have been a subspecies of the California Condor.

Today's California Condor is the sole surviving member of Gymnogyps and has no accepted subspecies; although its range greatly contracted during the Holocene, the species always had a small and inbred population. However, there is a Late Pleistocene palaeosubspecies, Gymnogyps californianus amplus , which occurred over much of the bird's historical range – even extending into Florida – and was larger, having about the same weight as the Andean Condor. This bird also 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 californianus of today. - Wikipedia

So in essence, the bird was able to evolve in order to survive the last ice age, but the last ice age is no match for the lifestyle of present day mankind.

These large birds have few predators other than man. In addition to competing with condors at carcasses, Golden Eagles may also prey on chicks and eggs. Ravens, black bears and other mammals may be potential egg predators. […]

Low mortality rates often lead to low rates of reproduction for a species; this is the case with the California Condor. Condors reach sexual maturity after 6 to 8 years, and generally do not breed every year. The arrival of humans increased mortality rates for the species, but the rate at which the species could replenish its numbers did not change. Thus, by the 1980's, only 20 plus birds survived in the world.

The variety of threats faced by birds included collection by Native Americans, shooting by later settlers, collisions with power lines, incidental poisoning (from coyote control programs) and other threats created by humans. In recent years, the leading threat appears to be from lead poisoning. The source of this toxin is from animal carcasses (such as dear and feral pigs) shot with lead bullets. Condors feeding on animals wounded by hunters ingest these lead bullets and are subsequently poisoned. - National Audubon Society

More specifically…

Condors eat only dead animals, and the birds can inadvertently consume poisonous lead-bullet fragments found in hunter-shot game. It was lead that forced the capture of the last wild condor in 1987. Nevertheless, 20 years later, many hunters are still using lead ammunition - and released condors continue to die. Now there is a chance to make a much-needed change to protect the condor and other wildlife. The state Senate is considering legislation (AB821) that would restrict the use of lead ammunition.

When a lead bullet slams into a game animal, it shatters into scores and sometimes hundreds of highly toxic pieces. Biologist Grainger Hunt showed me dozens of X-rays he had taken of hunter-shot deer. A typical black-and-white image revealed an astonishing sight: Scattered among the deer's shadowy ribs and vertebrae were more than 200 brilliant white particles of lead. "This 'lead snowstorm' spreads widely from the wound site," Hunt said. Consuming even one of these tiny fragments can poison a condor, other wildlife or even hunters.[…]

Released birds have to be regularly trapped and their blood tested for lead exposure. Condors with high lead levels have to be confined and injected twice daily with a chemical that binds with lead and carries it out of their bodies. Dozens of condors have gone through this expensive medical treatment known as chelation. Some poor birds have been poisoned several times and needed multiple chelation treatments at the estimated cost of thousands of dollars per bird per procedure. Despite biologists' best efforts, some condors suffer long and horrible deaths by starvation when lead poisoning paralyzes their digestive systems. The condor cannot fully recover until sport hunters switch to non-lead ammunition. - San Francisco Chronicle

Of course, the human risk must not be forgotten in this. Hunters and their families who may accidentally eat the shot in animals they have hunted become susceptible to risks associated with lead ingestion.