Falconry

Falconry (occasionally referred to as 'falconeering') is the art or sport of training raptors (birds of prey) to hunt or pursue game.

Training

There are two main categories of birds used in falconry - long wings (falcons) which hunt birds and short wings (hawks) which hunt a range of prey, often focusing on rabbits.

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A young bird (eyass) is trained through the reward of food. Raptors, unlike dogs for instance, are top predators, not social animals. They do not 'love' the falconer, they will not aim to please him; they do what they have to do to find the easiest source of food.

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A young bird will be fed by the falconer on the glove, often taking a day or two to accept food after being taken from its parents. It is very important to establish in the bird's mind that food comes only from the falconer. The bird will be getting accustomed to its new 'furniture' as well as its new owner. The bird wears a bell, or pair of bells, on its legs which can be heard from a surprising distance. An identity ring is worn in most countries, and the bird has 'bracelets' placed around both legs. Strips of strong kangaroo leather called 'jesses' are threaded through the bracelets, and tied to a swivel, which is in turn tied to a 'leash' made of strong boat cord. The leash will be tied, using a loop system or the 'falconer's knot' to the bird's perch. Falcons sit on a 'block' - a flat-topped perch similar to the rock ledge they would use in nature - while short-wings, used to tree branches, will sit on a 'bow perch', so called because it looks like an archer's bow.

Related Topics:
Kangaroo - Jesses - Falconer's knot - Archer

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Once the bird will feed from the gloved fist, the bird is encouraged to jump to the fist to gain its reward of food. This trains both the bird's muscles and its association with the falconer with food. It is at this time that a falcon is 'made' to the hood. Falcons can be highly strung and a specially designed hood is used to protect it from sights which might upset it. Falcons have long memories and once scared by something unexpected can take a long time to forget it. Short-wings are not made to the hood; the more they see the more 'manned' they get. Raptors are not 'tamed' in training, they are 'manned'. Even birds bred for several generations in captivity are not 'tame' in the way that social animals are.

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The falcon will soon be trained to associate the 'lure' with food, encouraged to jump to the lure to feed. The lure is nothing more than a pair of wings, or piece of shredded car tyre, on a long line which will soon be used to exercise the bird in free flight. A rabbit lure may be used for a short-wing in a similar way.

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The bird will make longer and longer jumps for food, soon progressing to flying on a 'creance'. This word, from the French, means simply a long light cord on which the bird can fly up to 50 yards. In the case of a falcon - which is never encouraged to fly to a post lest this become a habit - the bird will be called from an assistant's fist. Short-wings, however, can be trained from posts. Speed of response is more important than the length of the flight. When the bird will come without hesitation the full length of the creance, it is time to fly the bird free.

Related Topics:
Creance - Yard

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Birds are flown according to their weight and hunger. A fat bird may refuse to fly at all, while a bird that has just been fed may see no reason to return to the falconer's care and fly away to explore his surroundings. The daily weighing of the bird is vital therefore to maintaining its well-being. Birds are flown as 'high' e.g. as heavy as possible. A bird that is ready to fly is said to be in 'yarak', a Turkish word, meaning in good health. 'Rousing', the raising and ruffling of a contented bird's feathers, is a sign of this. To ignore a bird's weight and condition is to lose it or kill it.

Related Topics:
Yarak - Turkish - Rousing

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The creance is so light that a bird should be unaware that it was wearing it, so flying free for the first time should prove no different, however traumatic it can be for the nervous falconer. The bird should fly like a bullet to the glove or lure, and from now on the bird will fly free on every occasion. The next major step in training a long-wing is to pull the lure away from it just as it is about to take it, making the bird wheel round, in theory, and attack the lure again. Once this is achieved the lure will be swung around the falconer's head, encouraging the bird to make more 'passes' at the lure, having it twitched away at the last moment. A bird may make forty passes at the lure once fit, the equivalent of circuit training. If the bird should catch it on the first pass it is rewarded with the small piece of meat tied securely to the lure, just as it is if it catches it on the fortieth. The falconer then 'makes in' to the bird pulling on the lure, and gently offers it more food on the glove as he replaces the birds jesses and ties it to the glove. You never take food away from a raptor. Once the bird kills its prey, the bird is taken from it with more food on the glove.

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Short-wings are not flown to the lure, but encouraged to make long flights at a rabbit lure pulled along the ground, and perhaps encouraged to fly from tree to tree as the falconer walks along.

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