Training a falcon can be extremely rewarding to anyone with patience and a willingness to learn.
A beginning falconer should start with knowledge, and to get you started, this guide will guide you through everything you need to know to learn how falconers train and care for their birds.
Let’s get started!
Tips for Training Your Birds
To make the most out of your falcon training, you should follow these essential steps when training your falcon.
Acquire Proper Licenses
You’ll need a beginner’s license with falconry regulated in most places. To get a beginner’s permit, you must pass a written test.
After acquiring your license, you must find a sponsored apprenticeship for a minimum of two years, where you can learn about falconry techniques and gain experience.
Upon completing your two-year apprenticeship, you can acquire your general license, allowing you to keep falcons.
The license application process varies by region so remember to look for specific requirements.
Familiarize Your Bird with Its New Environment
To get your bird manned or accustomed to its new environment, you can stay in the house and spend as much time as possible while observing its behavior to the changes, making the bird get used to you.
Your bird should start getting used to its surroundings within three days; this makes you start feeding your bird, which trains it to step up.
You can put on your glove and place raw meat on it. While holding your glove, you can whistle to signal the bird to step on your glove and eat.
Once the bird is comfortable with your glove, you can start tossing food onto the floor for it to feast. By holding up your glove, you can signal the bird to return.
Indoor Training
Once the bird trusts you and shows calm behavior, you can start training your bird indoors. Indoor training can use a lure resembling the game you want to hunt.
You can attach pieces of meat to the lure to attract the bird to the surprise and jiggle the lure a few feet from the bird to get its attention. After attacking the bait and eating the meat, you should hold your glove and whistle for it to return.
When the bird reliably attacks the lure from a few feet, you can increase the distance and keep practicing indoors until the bird can comfortably reach the bait across a room.
Once the bird knows how to attack the lure, you can stop baiting it and teach it that it will be rewarded after withdrawing from the hunt and coming to your glove. As a reward, you can throw a piece of meat on the floor after the bird attacks the lure.
Outdoor Training
Start by tethering your bird to an outdoor perch with a long creance, and wiggle the lure to signal the bird to attack it. You can slowly increase the chase distance to reach the creance’s entire length.
If your bird can reliably attack a lure and return to your gloves on the creance, you are free to practice without the creance. Remember to affix a radio transmitter to one of its legs to track it if it wanders.
You should expand your bird’s range by floating a lure from a balloon, then signal the bird to attack the bait. You can reward it by throwing a small piece of meat onto the ground when it returns to your gloved arm.
Tips for Caring for Your Birds
Provide Proper Housing
You have to provide the correct housing before your bird arrives. Falconry birds are accommodated in mews for initial training and every night.
The mews can be built outdoors or indoors, providing adequate shelter from harsh weather conditions and a perch for the bird.
Providing Food
The falcons are trained to hunt by themselves, but if they are unsuccessful, they will return to the gloves because they know there will be food there.
You can carry pieces of meat to encourage the bird to return to the glove if the hunt is unsuccessful.
Checking Falcons’ Health
Falconers closely monitor their bird’s weight to monitor their health and know when the bird is ready to hunt.
Falconers aim to have fit and healthy birds but are also quite hungry when hunting.
Providing Tracking Equipment
The falconer can track the birds by having the birds wear leather anklets with bells attached.
Some falconers use radio transmitters to track birds’ movements if they wander away.
Concluding Remarks
With insight into the topics discussed in this article, training and caring for your birds is easy with no fuss.
If you work diligently, you should be able to prepare your bird to fly freely and hunt live games within a few weeks.
