I believe in veterinary care. Every one of them handled vet appointments with aplomb – my raptor vet would regularly comment that she’d never seen such calm, well mannered raptors. Nothing phased them – they were rarely stressed, no matter what the environment or situation. One kestrel was an exception – she was just plain nuts. But I released her quickly – I wasn’t going to force her into something that she wasn’t made for.

We all have our methods and different expectations. As long as we’ve got healthy birds, are getting into the field and taking game, what’s the problem?

In the mid 1970′s Mom had a Harris Hawk that was afraid of men after being taken from the nest really early by some amatuer that tried to give him a live jack rabbit before he was even hard-pinned. When we got him only Mom and I could go near him, and he LOVED being picked up around his chest/wings and cuddled up to our faces – he’d give us little love-nibbles on our cheeks! He loved the attention and you could tell. But if a man approached he went NUTS!

The most successful hunters we had were also the most affectionate birds, also. I always believe that they hunted to impress us, not unlike the cat who leaves a dead gopher on your pillow as a “gift.”

I would agree that every falconer is very different. Most (in my considerable experience)are people who don’t really like other humans in the first place! (My own father being a prime example.) And they don’t like to be told that there are other ways of doing things, either! hehe They take it pretty personally. But I don’t think my Dad reads your blog anyway!

Each bird is an individual, and requires an individual approach based on careful observation. I’ve had redtails that did well with a lot of touching, and others that were more “aloof” or “businesslike”. (I put these terms in quotes intentionally, owing to the risks inherent in interpreting animal emotions into human terms.) Graham’s fourth rule above re: hats and glasses, and Rebecca’s addition re: hair color, ought to apply above all to accipiters, right? Yet Talkeetna, my passage sharpie, was oblivious to such concerns. I could fly her with or without sunglasses, bareheaded or wearing a cap–and that cap could be any color, including blaze orange! But I won’t count on that flexibility with my next sharpie, because it may be completely different. Then again, my next sharpie might be more tolerant of people in the field than Talkeetna was.

I do think this is a discussion worth having, and only wish more tolerance than temper was on display. A number of good, thoughtful points have been made, and I’ll try to check back in to follow the conversation as it continues…

I don’t know, that sounds like a confidence and training issue as opposed to being a sensitivity issue. Like not getting the body language right and not communicating well. And yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if the hawk has trained him. Can’t fault him for watching his hawk closely, but like you said, I would think it will all straighten out with the confidence of hunting. Bummer about the circumstances, not the ideal first bird situation. I don’t envy either of you…

I haven’t had an apprentice in a while but not for lack of trying. The most recent guy contacts me about once a year—so seldom that he has to remind me we’ve spoken before. I took him hawking this year (about a month ago) and haven;t heard from him since.

But I have a friend who is training his first hawk, and I’m trying to walk/talk him through it.

One of the things we’re going over is the physical contact issue. He has had this bird more than a year, nuring it throughh the worst case of avian pox I’ve ever seen. It’s healed now, but he and the bird have developed some disfunctional habits.

Essentially, I feel he’s TOO sensitive to the bird’s personal space; at this point, the bird needs only flinch slightly and he will stop doing even necessary things like touching to put bells on, place the bird in the box, or the like.

As an experienced falconer watching this, my impression is that the hawk has trained the falconer completely. It is in the lead. Since my friend has not yet taken a hawk through a complete cycle of training and hunting, he lacks the experience of knowing where he intends to take the hawk in terms of field work. Given that their current relationship is essentially domestic (as in, centered around the house), the hawk has no more idea what falconry is “about” than does my friend.

My expectation is that once he gets her into the field, hungry enough, and flushes game that she catches, their relationship will enjoy a major breakthrough and renaissance.

Maybe it was misinterpreted by readers….but I think the point is that there are ways to get the desired behavior (in this case touching) via positive reinforcement. This is different than just touching the bird despite body language, or the bird tolerating touching. Really different. When I train, I want an eager participant. Not the one that says…..well, OK, if you must.

While for sure, the judge is not using anywhere near the king of force I know I have seen others do, the point is……there is a way to raise the bar and actually do it even better.

How do I know? We just trained touching body parts with some king vultures at a zoo where I consult. We taught the birds to target their beak to a circle we hang on the side of their enclosure. By the way we positioned the target, we were able to get them to lift their foot on cue, allow us to touch and then followed it with a food reinforcer. We also did this with touching their chest. Now we have birds who keep offering the behavior(s) to see what it earns them. And these birds are not jessed or on a glove. They can leave anytime they want.

These vultures are not he only examples of this type of training out there. At the conference I am attending right now for bird trainers(www.iaate.org), a friend just shared his story of training a falcon to accept an IM injection without restraint using positive reinforcement.

I think the point is there is potential for even more if we use what we know about positive reinforcement training and apply it to more than just hunting, but every interaction/behavior we want from our birds.

Barbara Heidenreich
http://www.goodbirdinc.com