I am a 2nd year apprentice and my male Harris started getting footy towards to the glove last year. I switched to throwing the meat most of the time, and he is now very gentle with the glove. I also throw a mouse to get him off prey or the lure. It has worked pretty well for me so far. If he starts to slow down in responding to me, I'll switch back to feeding him (tidbits only) on the glove for a tiny bit, but he works best long term chasing it. I started on the ground but now I often throw the food far and he can be quite acrobatic catching it out of the air.
I have past the exam but finding a sponsor is proving to be difficult in South East Tennessee. I appreciate your efforts. Without your presence this space would feel empty. I am almost 45..... But you have Ben here my whole falconry life. Keep it up and much thanks
Anything that can turn the clock back on over feeding from the glove is a valuable tip. So many thanks for that. Here is another, slow down. Give the bird a chance to inspect the glove, check under it's feet and it will relax. We can be in a rush to do things by our (falconer) timescale. But allowing especially younger birds a bit more time. Seems to switch off the aggression. That and never ever take food away from a bird, especially a HH. Precut pieces save lots of issues. Flying a new HH and it has zero issues around food (at the moment), using the above and also 50% of daily rations fed via the lure.
Dealing with this now with my red tail. The sticky foot I minimized with your other sticky foot video (changing glove, not feeding on the glove, etc), but I still have to occasionally feed with the glove for one reason or another, so I've been doing this trick you recommend here. Typically bringing up the food with my other hand or relocating the meat once I've got him on the glove like you explain here. Good tip. It works for sure.
it works well. Although, I prefer to teach them MANNERS so that they are not acting aggressively towards me over food, this trick of Ben outlined works great when that goes astray. I have used it since 95 off and on.
I noticed my current red-tail was a bit sticky footed from the first time she hopped to the fist. I used a similar technique and rarely called her to the garnished glove. One other thing I did was to leave my glove in the chamber with her. I figured it couldn't hurt and seeing it all the time she would be less likely to associate it with food. I don't know if it helped at all, but she is a lovely non-sticky bird now. 😊
I've been seeing a lot of videos lately of people interacting with Kookaburras and was wondering how well they would work as a falconry bird, given that their fairy smart birds and are known to hunt a wide variety of things that are fairly large (compared to them).
I had a kookaburra a few years ago and hope to be getting a new on in the spring, and testing that theory. But here’s where the limitations might be. Kookaburras are actually giant kingfishers, that did indeed hunt fish. But as the bulk of Australia became desert during the Pleistocene, kookaburras adapted to hunt all kinds of other prey. But this was not that long ago geologically speaking. So they aren’t the pest at catching or tearing apart their prey (especially when they catch birds) because their body design has not yet caught up to their change in hunting tactics because the drying out of Australia was comparatively recent. But they are still incredible hunters and I think it would be a blast to see what they are capable of. I have a hornbill and have pondered training her to hunt non native sparrows and see if she would do it.
Uh i agree this works but i whole heartedly disagree with doing this especially with a RTH. You do this and it will learn food comes from the off hand then the next time you go to feel the keel it will grab you. Not only that most of the time it will only grab you with one foot. The other foot will still be latched to the glove. So there you are both hands latched and if you're alone like i was you have to wait for it to let go. Again i highly disagree with this.
My RT won’t let go of the glove even when i throw the tidbits, flush something, or even present the lure. He bates toward it, holding the glove (and piercing through it!) 😬 I have to pry his talons off of me and launch him but he never catches after that much chaos. He’s a partial imprint i inherited.
Try throwing it before he lands. I do that sometimes to mix it up. You wouldn't want to over do it or he might stop coming to your glove, but that might break the cycle. I do it sometimes to keep him guessing and looking.
Question. For someone wanting to get into falconry but with relatively little time and/or space what birds would be recommend. I realize both are very important and I wouldn't want to cut corners or not give a bird what it needs but still would like to get into falconry some day.
You may have to wait until you have time for it. If you’re tight on space, you can look into flying an American kestrel. (If you’re in the US!) However time is absolutely necessary, and if you don’t have the time (especially with a kestrel they’re insanely delicate) the bird’s life and enjoyment is at stake. If i wasn’t home most (or at least a good portion) of the day, i probably wouldn’t have a happy, healthy bird right now. Sorry to say it. I’d caution against kestrels for beginners, however, because five grams missing from his meal can, and will, kill him. I have flown several kestrels and one recently had a metabolic crash (and did not make it) because he didn’t like his food and flicked some of it. I was asleep so i didn’t know he didn’t eat it. But it was the end of him. Hard news, sorry! Good luck!
Depends on the bird. But usually you only do this for a few days as a transition. Then you just start calling them to a completely ungarnished glove with the food in The other hand behind your back. Then you drop the food behind you, take a step forward, and swivel around so they can see the food on the ground and they can drop down to it without ever seeing that you dropped the food. I have slightly different practices based on which species it is. But that is my answer in general terms.
I see the technique but i was wondering about one thing, mostly about harrises. I fly a female (13 yrs old, not mine ) for 2 years now, and if i would do this, she would either instantly fly into the trees (seeing the meat dissappear), or she would simply jump straight onto ground expecting reward since she is pretty smart. She is not directly aggresive but she mantles over her meat while eating and sometimes screams when you get your hand too close while she is feeding, but for the reasons i stated i dont think throwing meat on the ground is a good idea. Generally i love your videos and i am glad you do them, just pointing out that i think it wouldnt work on every aggresive bird, since it would possibly learn wrong things which are hard to erase.
Type in gyr American kestrel hybrid that's real jerkin it's small like kestel and behaves like micro bird but it's still gyr falcon I was accused of being crazy they don't exsist I never seen one with saker falcon I'm them but I've seen minture birds there range from white to black and they can also be shrunk down to micro and thats real jerkin and can be placed in the kestrel group but it's still a gyr so gyrlin and I'm not crazy they do hover.
Hey Ben, still following you!! Great content. Haven't seen a video about record keeping, I was wondering if you could do something like that. I'm also wondering if you could do a test review video? It'd be helpful, to say the least! Rich 🪶🦅🦉
