Written by James Dawson, all rights reserved.
<< Falconers ....are there species of raptors that are more successful than
others in falconry or can they all be trained to perform the same? Are you bothered by
predation or territorial protection from wild hawks? Do you lose young, untrained hawks?
Can young, untrained or even older, domestically bred hawks fend for themselves if lost?
>>
Chris S. -- I have practiced falconry for many years and will try to answer your question.
To my knowledge, all raptors can be trained to fly free and return. Many species don't fit
well with hunting objectives are thus are not used for falconry (i.e., a raptors that
specializes on protected passerines is difficult to use for legal hunting). Many others
simply are not allowed by the US authorities to be flown, usually for arbitrary reasons.
Yes, there are many problems with encounters between wild and falconry birds.
Yes, birds are sometimes injured or killed during these encounters and other unpredictable
accidents, like hitting a power line while in pursuit of quarry. Wild eagles take many
trained falcons, great horned owls can take others that, through accident, spend a night
out. Birds are sometimes "lost" during hunts, which typically means the bird
ends up out of sight of the falconer and naturally cannot see the cues to return. The use
of tiny radio transmitters helps to recover these birds quickly (an approach outside
parrot people might explore as added security). Most accomplished hunters can fend for
themselves easily and there are countless cases where falconry bird made it for many years
in the wild. But young birds obviously cannot. Imprinted birds are also at a loss in many
cases to deal with finding safe roosting sites and other survival issues.
On the other hand, many falconry birds are hunted thousands of times and end up living
long and healthy lives. No captive raptor, no matter how well tended, can compare to a
strong falconry bird in terms of vitality, health, and intelligence. It's like night and
day. Who can tell what a raptor is thinking but I have to believe falconry birds are much
happier and fulfilled than birds on static display.
The differences between the act of releasing a trained raptor versus a trained parrot
outdoors are mainly in the mindset of people. Keeping a raptor indoors clipped is
something that has never existed in the long history of falconry. Owning a raptor and not
letting it fly sometimes occurs but is greatly frowned upon by the falconry community. In
practical terms, the falconer believes that freeflight is a right of the bird. That the
bird will fly free is never in question. There is no comparison of risk between indoor and
outdoor, clipped and unclipped lifestyles. Instead, the falconer manages risk only in
terms of the flight -- should I fly the bird near this powerline, is there an eagle
around, and so on.
Lest someone bring up the issue of the high cost of psittacines, a captive produced female
peregrine goes for about $1,500 US. Not a paltry sum considering what can sometimes happen
in the big blue.
Falconers are always mentally prepared to lose a bird, but that doesn't mean it goes down
easy or that they have less of a bond with the bird. We all take losses very hard. Nothing
good in life is free -- that's the price you sometimes pay to be part of the beauty of
free and unrestricted flight. To work with a bird as it learns to fly, discovers and
perfects various flight maneuvers, and ultimately comes to own the sky is perhaps the
ultimate in the bird/human relationship. My proudest moment with my current male peregrine
falcon was not when he captured game or anything, it was the first time he out-flew a wild
prairie falcon that was intent on doing him serious damage. The fact that the bird I had
raised from a fluffy youngster had the strength and flight skills to outdo a hardened
veteran of the wild put me over the top.
For falconry birds, it can be a wild life, which seems entirely right for
"wildlife". Parrots are wildlife too. Again, much of the controversy herein
stems entirely from dogma and tradition in the pet bird world. A new mind set will be
needed by anyone wishing to do freeflight outdoors.
JD
James Dawson is a wildlife biologist specializing in avian social behavior and raptor
biology. He works for Sonora Environmental Consultants, Inc., a company based in
Tucson, Arizona that among other things conducts environmental ed programs that utilize
free flying pscittacines.