A FALCONRY THREAD!!!

[TheBantyCoop]

Hello all,

I wanted to start a thread on falconry and I hope that it becomes popular! There is nothing in particular I would like posted here as long as it relates to falconry/birds of prey in a POSITIVE way. Have fun and post away!

Just to kick this thread off these are pictures of my favorites animals (both birds of prey


For those who don't know this is a Philippine Eagle! Really cool birds, endangered too
I would recommend checking out their Arkive page to learn more about them!

http://www.arkive.org/philippine-eagle/pithecophaga-jefferyi/video-00.html



This one is a Great Horned Owl! Awe-some birds!!



Thanks for viewing this thread,
El

- I don't claim credit for these images BTW! Just stuff I found around the web.....


Edited by Staff

 

[Free Feather]

What is falconry?
I really love birds of prey, but I like seeing them free. I am not comfortable with people confining or training them.

 

[TheBantyCoop]

I would do some research on it if you are curious, and keep an open mind. Falconry is a sport in which people hunt with birds of prey. It is quite interesting, and the birds get to go out to hunt live prey in the field. It is a type of relationship, and birds in falconry tend to enjoy their lives. If they were unhappy they would fly away! People who partake in falconry are usually very passionate and take good care of their birds!

Falconers are also helpful in many ways. Some help organic farmers by scaring pests out of their fields, and others work with threatened species to enrich their lives during captive breeding programs.

I was at first a little uncomfortable with the idea of captive birds of prey as well, but in learning more about it I have come to appreciate how the birds become domesticated. Like I said it is a relationship and the birds need to be content, or it doesn't work!

Thanks for commenting,
El

 

[ExBattChicks]

Thank you TheBantyCoop for sharing those beautiful pictures, birds and links with us.

That Eagle is GORGEOUS!! Of course it is endangered...it is too beautiful and too dangerous and man just can't leave things be. I hope that it's numbers will increase and that it will soon be off the endangered list.

Like you and Free Feather, I have wondered about falconry and how the birds 'feel' about it. Thank you also for enlightening us on it.

Where I live - in the middle of a nature reserve, we have hawks that have a nest not far from us and each day they fly overhead...parents with a 'teenager' I'm guessing. I love to watch them and hear them up there. Actually, I would love to BE up there WITH THEM floating on a warm air current and watching all that goes on below!! I sometimes worry about my cats, but I think they are pretty aware of the hawks and stay close to the treeline...I hope!! The chicken coop is covered.

Owls, we have those, too...all kinds and I so enjoy hearing them at night when there isn't another sound..just the owls.

Nature is fabulous and I wish more people would respect it rather than trying to control it and conform it to their own (very little and very unimportant) lives. We are but tiny dots on this big earth, but man, we can cause and have caused so much damage and destruction. People really need to wake up and get over themselves before we have pushed into extinction all the beauty of this world.

 

[TheBantyCoop]

ExBattChicks,

Glad that you enjoyed the post! I agree with your opinions on man and nature wholeheartedly, I wish that everyone could feel that way. Sigh...

The place where you live sounds beautiful beyond words! The owls must be amazing, I rarely hear one where I live if ever. I sometimes hear deep who's when I walk in the forest, but they could just be pigeons. We have a lot of those!

Good luck with your cats. Depending the species of hawk the cats might be too big for them, but even if not cats seem to have a miraculous way of taking care of themselves. Really amazing creatures, very independent.

Sorry for being all over the place, I just had so much to say!

-El

 

[TheBantyCoop]

A cool discovery on the internet! I am absolutely in awe!!

These are leucistic red-tailed hawks! I have always loved red-taileds, but these are just beyond compare! Leucistic animals are like albino animals in that they lack certain pigment. In leucistic animals the eyes stay the normal color instead of red, typically! Just a cool discovery I wanted to share!!

-El

 

[HeritageGoose13]

What is falconry?
I really love birds of prey, but I like seeing them free. I am not comfortable with people confining or training them.

That is the entire purpose of falconry, at least American falconry. I don't like how they do it in certain European countries with captive breeding and all that.

In America you must train to become a falconer. There are certain species you can take. What you do is you set a trap for a juvenile bird. 90% of juvenile birds of prey do not survive to mate. So you catch one of these birds and bring it home. The raptor and human hunt together. This gives the hawk protection and more hunting training. Then after a certain period of time the human releases the hawk, but it should be known, the hawk is free to leave at any point in time after the initial training.

Here is a great video showing the process:

There is one point in the video, around 7 minutes, the hawk realizes he is free to leave, but returns to the man. Falconers don't force the hawk to work for them, they are both equal and choose to work together on hunts.

Falconry is an important part of raptor conservation.

 

[rides2far]

I taught 6th grade for 20 years & one of our core lit books was My Side of the Mountain. In it, a young boys trains a peregrine falcon to hunt for him. The kids were really interested in it. They did a lot of research on falcons, falconry, & living off the land. A good education for city kids

 

[sourland]

The leucistic hawk is unusual indeed. For the first 15 or so years that we lived at our home a 50% white female redtail would winter in this area. She would spend a large part of each day in an ash tree across the road. Then several years ago a melanistic redtail wintered in the same area.

 

[Free Feather]

The leucistic hawk is unusual indeed. For the first 15 or so years that we lived at our home a 50% white female redtail would winter in this area. She would spend a large part of each day in an ash tree across the road. Then several years ago a melanistic redtail wintered in the same area.

You seem to know a lot about wild birds from what you have said in previous posts. Do you do a lot of reading, or how did you learn?