Thomas Andersen trains a free-lofted, rehabilitated red-tailed hawk without using many traditional training methods such as Jesses, Hoods, Creances, Leashes, etc. Limiting training methods to positive reinforcement acts.
I'm a licensed falconer and a raptor rehab volunteer. I love red-tailed hawks and I gotta tell you, from start to finish, this video just made me smile. Thank you for making my day. : )
FIRST AND I THINK MOST CRITICAL; SAFETY, His/Her Claws. My Flesh is a Treat to him/her. What MATTERIAL, MUST, My Glove be. I'm Right HANDED..... .. Should My LEFT, be His/Her Perch???? Thanks, FRIEND
The anklets are to attach a radio trasmitter. Since this video, they were actually removed and the bird flew for programs using a backpack transmitter. This was very cool because once they are preened into the feathers, it looks like a completely wild hawk, and photographers particularly liked this.
Thank you for posting this video! As an apprentice falconer who has helped rehab a red tail before with the guidance of my sponsor and has my own passage male right now, I've faced a lot of criticism for "free loft" training my bird. I'm showing this video to the naysayers.
Love this video! I implement nearly ALL of the training stages you do, and have for over 22 years. When I got my first red-tail, I figured, "Well, this is HER first encounter with a human, why not imprint events in HER TIME, not MINE!' And, believe it or not I had her, "Shawntar", for 8 years before I released her back to the wild. I went back to the release area and retrieved (I am sure!) one of her granddaughters two years ago. Training went much the same as her grandmother...(maybe Great Grandmother!). Keep up the great work you are doing! FLY FREE! C.W.
I am studying hard to take my exam next year and I must say that the mutual respect I see in this video is awe inspiring. As a dog trainer and natural horsmanship trainer, I see more positives than negatives. I don't see the frustration or reluctant behaviour in this raptor that I have seen in most videos. He really trusts his falconer, which I'm sure made the more advanced training a ton easier. I will keep these methods in mind for my first bird. THANK YOU!
Really, this is a beautiful video, with a beautiful animal. These are may favourite hawks, I love the "Buteo"s, like Parabuteo Unicinctus, Buteo Jamaicensis, Buteo Regalis, Buteo Buteo... Nice work ;)
Sorry to people who asked questions I didn't get to. I don't monitor my youtube channel too closely. I filmed the video and Thomas edited it, so I was not sure about the first song. He does not follow this channel at all either and he is back in Denmark, so we don't get to chat much. Apparently someone got it labeled somehow as "Flying" by Nice Little Penguins. I have no idea if that is correct or not, but I will presume it is. I can't take the sound off or make it where other countries can view it if there is a violation in some areas. The video is just "as is" created for a conference. I too wish it was available on mobile phones as I have tried to show people, but I can't even play my own video on the phone. I am not the most "youtube savvy." People are more than welcome to contact me with advice. Sorry for this and thank you for the nice comments a lot of you had :)
beautiful red tail!!! Operant conditioning is such a great way to train, glad to see you took it on as well. Your bird seems to trust you a lot, that is awesome!!
Great video! Just started to get the confidence of a Female Harris, and its all new to me! Will take a lot of what I see here and try and utilise it. My Female is freelofted, much to my mates disgust, they recon I wont get anywhere with her that way, we will see! No rush at all! Thanks for sharing!
Thomas did not want me making too many comments making this a forum, but the bird is not always flown to a glove, & rewards very to keep the bird sharp. This was the initial training process, but f/ here, chain behaviors can be (& were) introduced. Lure flying is also done, as well as setting up targets for birds like Harris' Hawks to fly to & pull food f/ holes. Many other elements of falconry can still come into play, this video only showed how training can be done w/out adversive equipment.
Since I ran out of space above, I would also like to thank everyone for their comments. TheFalconfun, your video of the prey capture was very impressive!
Get rid of the jesses & build your trust without restraint : ) Notice there is no holding of the bird in our video. I try not to comment too much because the "hard core" traditional falconry folks tend to jump all over these comments...but our male red-tail is free flying to wherever we cue him at a weight upwards of 1200g. Minimize adversives & gain trust.
I'm working on apreantice book right now learning planning to get my license this 2017 year and have my bird this fall!! I'm in the MHC already have really good falconer friends there but I'm learning for that test about 7 Mo now and I'll get it this year! Hopefully this year in the fall I'll have my first bird!!! And of course going hunting with!!love them so so much!
@SoLAWildlife hi , nice hawk you got there . Is your hawk still well? can you make a new clip of him? this video was really helping . In the future i wana teach myself how to train a hawk and all that .Cheers and thanks for the vid.
been a falconer for 15 years, have trained 5 birds in that time and all have been trained in much this way. No furniture on the bird until I can put it on her while she sits on the glove for a meal. I will take your method of giant hood training into account with my next RT . I've just put the piece of meat in and let her go get it. I like you feeding hole better.
Fantastic! It's a lot of work. Time and patience and frustration but well worth it IMO because I think it makes for a bird that has an absolutely wonderful attitude as this bird exhibits. It hardly shows any high strung behavior like most intense falconry birds exhibit and doesn't just jump wildly here are there. A lot has to do with your own personal aura and how it comes off. I've seen many trainers and falconers with just absolutely terrible attitudes and it's not that difficult to see why their birds also show crappy attitudes. I can clearly see from the beginning part of the video how calm and collected this beautiful Red Tail is and it's clearly due to your ways. I also like how you don't have any strings off the jesses showing even more trust in the bird. I'm sure the jesses are needed when you have children around etc. and you need to be sure this predator by nature doesn't jump off and poke someone in the eye or something like that. But it's refreshing that it has just about as much freedom as a captive bird could have. Well done.
positive reinforcement works better than punishment as you don't risk detrimental side effects like Escape avoidance aggression Apathy Generalized fear of the environment Learned helplessness Loss of trust Animals trained in negative/dominance work just to avoid negatives Animals trained in P+ look forward to training & more creative / attentive
The anklets were for the transmitter, which we actually took off to go w/ a backpack transmitter for radios tracking. You don't need food for every action, just in the beginning. F/ there. you can chain. We do use crates the bird goes in on its own terms & is let out if it wants. We were working on a light weight backpack crate for the field though. We aren't going to eliminate adversives, that isn't realistic. We just always look to minimize. Each trainer can find what that means for them : )
Sorry for late response on some. I appreciate the nice comments. Thomas made the lures from a modified design he had out of leather. There was no lure flying in this video though, this was just to show an innitial training process without all the traditional adversive equipment (like jesses).
@hairynostril so some people have different ways of training. This works for him and his bird and something else works for you and yours. Just because its not what you do doesnt mean you should criticize him. There is also no need to attack my opinion.
patience and respect are everything,.. they result somethin' great,.. Nice video and training 10 thumbs up (9 others i borrow from my friends, hehehehhe) What's the song title start from 5:15 by the way?? May I know? It sounds good
I would love to know more about training a bird in this way. I am just looking at getting my first so any help appreciated. I work as a dog trainer and always advocate positive based methods, so in that sense some things will be familiar I suppose? Do you use clickers at all? are there any books you can recommend? thanks and great video
+Artemis A Not completely understanding the question. Are you referring to wind? The scale is set right next to the wind blocking tarp, and either way, you wait until it stabilizes.
I don't know him, but from the looks of that bird and the training he was doing, yeah, he's hunting with that bird. And if he isn't, I'll take it hunting XD
Great video, anyone got any tips on how to stop a hh baiting? My male who I've had just over 2 months now, flys great but every time I go into his flight to get him and every time I put him back in he baits it's really starting to frustrate me
good video some good traing methods, but i dont see how this training could be used for hunting as the bird is only happy to go to the fist as it knows that theres alway food in the palm... unless you only want to fly and demonstrate them in which case this is perfect :-) very well done
We did not use clickers. We will whistle to get the birds attention, but not in the sense of "capturing a behavior." If you would like to email me at SoLA.wildlife@gmail.com I can pass you on to Thomas's paper he won an award on at ABMA.
Thomas asked me not to respond here & to asnwer questions in private in order to not make this video clip into a forum. If you want to contact Thomas or me, I can be reached by e-mail at SoLA.wildlife@gmail.com. In case you missed it, this video is the training process from rehab, no flight, & living in a mew for years...to being able to fly free outside for raptor demonstrations, hawk walks, or hunting. As for the difference, you could start by noting there is nothing to hold onto the bird. : )
@dstrong1337 Well, I'd work on getting your falconers license first. Second, you don't really "own" the bird. It's really a partnership. The way falconry works, the bird just stays with you because he sees you as a source of food. He's free to leave at any time, especially when hunting. If they decide that they don't like you anymore, they'll fly away and you'll never see them again. That's why you have to train your bird for so long like this guy did. This bird will definitely stay with him!
so what do you do to restrain your bird when you need to for its own and others safety? why does it have anklets when our not using jesses? does your method not mean that you must produce food for every last action you wish from your bird? Positive reinforcement is great and should be part of every falconers training method, however because of the nature of the beast it should never be the sole method used when training a bird. By this reaconing we should not be placing a dog on a leash.
can you teach me how to train like that step by step? i got my first hawk (crested goshawk) 2 week past and he still don't have good jump-up. can u e-mail me? i need good mentor, at my country there is no falconer who can call bird without tidbit.
Well, you aren't really *supposed* to be able to call your bird without tidbits, and it's not even about how well they know to come to you. I have an idea to help you and your bird with the jump up; First, you should try feeding it from the glove, then a while of doing that, you should have it step at least one foot onto the glove, while resting your hand on the perch, then you should place your hand just a little from the edge and have it step onto the glove from there, and then hold your glove further and further out! Good luck!!
That's the whole point of the training. The bird already knows how to hunt. That's his nature. The training is so that he trusts you when he hunts and that he'll come back once he's caught his prey...or if he doesn't catch his prey XD
