Falconry

    Falconry is an art and sport that uses trained raptors to hunt and kill live animals and birds. Our interview with Mr. Rick Sliker, a falconer, showed us that this sport is much more than just hunting. Falconry also includes the care of the birds when they aren’t hunting. During the year, the birds need to be kept healthy, fed, and trained. This takes a whole lot of time and money. If a person can’t give the bird all of these things, they shouldn’t be a falconer.
    Hunting with a bird of prey has global history. It has been going on in Asia for over 4000 years. Drawings left from Ancient Egypt show falconry. Europe saw its beginnings over 1500 years ago. Kings didn’t train the birds themselves but hired someone called a Master Falconer to do this. Master Falconers were in charge of capturing or buying birds, training and keeping them. Kings usually had separate buildings called Mews where the birds were kept.
    Falconry has a set of rules that have changed over the years but their idea stays the same. Falconry was a sport for the very rich and the way poor people got fresh meat. In medieval times [1500-1600s], there were rules about who could practice falconry with what particular kind of bird. Kings could have a gyrfalcon [male or female]. Princes could have a male or female Peregrine Falcon all the way down the social ladder to servants who could hunt with kestrels. If you ‘flew’ a bird that was higher than your place in society, you would be punished. One punishment was to cut off the person’s hands! The interesting part is that today’s falconry is similar to the medieval class system because falconers can only fly certain birds. Instead of the system being based on the person’s place in society, it is based on the person’s abilities as a falconer.
     An apprentice can train, keep, and hunt with Red-tailed Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks, and American Kestrels. A general class falconer can have a choice of lots of birds of prey but can’t have a Golden Eagle. Only the master falconer can have that.   So, falconry today is a little like the medieval times in having certain birds used by different classes of people. In our interview with Mr. Sliker, he mentioned that in our state American Kestrels are endangered. If the bird of prey is endangered in their state, falconers can’t hunt with or keep them no matter what level they are on.
    When falconry started it was a way to get food for the family but, as time passed, kings and other people did it to obtain higher status or to look “cool.” It is the same as kids who compete in tough sports, wear “name-brand” clothing, or expensive jewelry for the purpose of showing off. In medieval times, many would take part in the sport to get noticed by the king and possibly move up in society.
    When guns were invented, falconry dropped off as a means to hunt. They didn’t have to capture birds, train them, and care for them anymore. Guns were easier and took up a whole lot less time.

Falconry in the United States is regulated by law, permits, and licensing by the federal and state government. In our interview with Mr. Sliker, it became obvious that all of these licenses and permits were costly to a falconer. You wouldn’t just get into this sport without giving it some serious thought. We learned from our interviews with Mr. Sliker [Falconry] and Mrs. Uhler [Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation Center] that you even need a permit to keep the feathers of any bird! Legally, you can’t walk by an owl nest, see a dropped feather, pick it up, and take it. Mrs. Uhler said this is a protection for birds of prey so that people don’t just kill the birds for feathers. The only people who do not need a permit to have feathers in the United States are Native Americans.
Today's classes of falconers:

	Apprentice	Must be 14 years of age, must have a general or master falconer sponsor you
	General	Must be 18 years of age, must have practice falconry with your own birds for at least 2 years
	Master	Must have practice falconry with your own birds for at least five years

    Falconers learn from each other. When you start out in falconry, you are an apprentice.   Apprentices learn from people who are farther along in falconry. An apprentice would not get help from another apprentice but look for someone in the general or master class.
    The falconer must get the right bird for his or her class. As we said before, the apprentice can have a Red-tailed Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, or an American Kestrel. The other classes of falconers [general and master] can also have these birds but are given the option of having other, more difficult birds to manage.
    Falconers can buy birds or capture their own. Whatever they decide to do, they have to be sure that the birds will be able to live and hunt where the falconer lives. For example,   some birds fly long distances and like to swoop down into fields to catch mice. It would not be a ‘natural’ and good thing for a bird like that to be living in a wooded area where it could fly into trees.

To train raptors, the falconers first had to buy equipment such as jesses, a perch or block, hoods, lures, and more. Jesses are straps that go around each of the bird’s legs. These get attached to a swivel and a leash is attached to that. This allows the bird to move from a perch to a block of wood and back again. The hoods go over the bird’s head and eyes. The bird thinks its night time and gets calmer.
It takes a really long time for the bird to get used to its falconer. Usually he starts training the bird in a dark room where the bird will be calmer. The falconer walks around a lot with the bird on his gloved hand. The gloves are chosen based on how large the bird and its talons are. A lightweight glove would be used for a small bird but a heavy one would be used for the larger birds like eagles. The gloves cover the falconer’s hand and part of his arm.

    After the bird gets used to him, the falconer will start to feed the bird small pieces of meat and gradually increase the size as the bird starts to take it from him. The goal is for the bird to eat naturally while being ‘handled’ by the falconer. Soon the bird is being trained in a lighted room or even outdoors and the hood won’t be used so much.    It was interesting to find out that birds of prey don’t like to be watched while they are eating.
    When the bird gets used to the outside, he is attached to a long cord and send out to look for food that the falconer has put out for him. When the falconer sees that the bird will come back to him, he stops using the cord to hold him as he flies.
    The next step is to put a small bell on the bird’s leg. If the falconer has a problem getting the bird to come back to him, he might be able to find him by the sound of the bell. The falconer teaches the bird to get food by using something called a lure. A lure is a hunk of leather with feathers and a chunk of meat on it. The falconer attaches a long cord to this and drops it down next to the bird. The bird will hop over to it and it will be dragged away over and over again. It can even be swung in the air on its string and the bird will fly to get it. In the end, the bird WILL get the meat and the game will be over for the time being.
    With a whole lot of patience, the falconer can train the bird to hunt and return to his fist. During the interview with our falconer, we found out that he sets the bird free and then starts tries to ‘flush out’ some prey for his bird.
    Falconers take birds out to hunt for prey during small game hunting season. They usually hunt from fall through winter and end in the spring. This depends on the rules and regulations where the falconer lives. During the whole year, the falconer feeds and takes care of the bird, making sure that it is always healthy. Falconry is an all-year activity and keeping a bird of prey healthy in captivity is not an easy thing.
    People take part in falconry all over the world. Laws and regulations are different all over the world. Falconry changes are being made all the time. Captive breeding is being used and hybrids are being created. Captive breeding is a program where birds are put in nature preserves, zoos, and other places where they can be mated or use scientific means for the birds to have hatchlings [baby birds]. Hybrids are a combination of two different kinds of birds.
    Selective breeding is also occurring. This is when birds are being mated based on qualities they have so that their hatchlings will have the combination. For example, falconers need certain characteristics in the birds they keep. Some of them are:

	The ability to live and breed while they are in captivity
	Being beautiful in some way, whether its eye color or feather color
	Natural ability to stay healthy in captivity
	Being able to fly for long distances
	Being able to work well with humans

So, a falconer who is breeding a bird might think that his ‘ideal’ bird is one that has reddish-brown feathers and can live a long time in captivity. He has a male bird for ten years and its breed is known to live in captivity even longer. The falconer will look for a female bird that has the feather color he wants and breed her with his male. This should produce a young bird with reddish-brown feathers that will live a long time in captivity.
Falconry is a very interesting sport but not one to jump into without a whole lot of thought. There is a big investment of time and money in it for sure. We were lucky enough to visit people who loved and cared for the birds they had. So we believe, in the end, that the real reason to become a falconer is for the love of--and respect for--birds of prey.

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