birds of prey until now

[senegalus]

Hi everyone!my name is romario gonsalves and I'm 17...I'm a falconer and I fly a 1 kg female jackal buzzard...I live in south africa mpulanga...I have lots of love birds in the past aswell as a few budgies!!!!but I'm finely getting my 1st parrot(a senegal)...it just hatched the other day so still waiting for it to be weaned!!!really amped...I've had tons of birds(like chickens,peafowl,quail,finches,doves,ducks,geese etc) and still have a few(racing pigeons and my hawk) but I really want a companion bird!!!so I'm really excited

Thanx

[Cage Cleaner]

Sweet. I've been mildly curious about keeping birds of prey.

[senegalus]

Its amazing...really interesting...and you see nature differently when you take part in it!

[felix11]

Fantastic.
I know that traditionally falconers don't keep their raptors as pets inside the house, free to fly around like parrots, but could you tell me why, exactly? Is it just tradition?

[Cage Cleaner]

What is your opinion on apprentices flying male american kestrels?

[senegalus]

@Felix... They dont necessarily become as tame as a pet parrot. My bird is an imprint (was raised by people, not natural parents) which makes her a lot tamer than most wild caught birds (yes, lots of falconry birds are wild caught) but even imprints don't become as chilled as parrots in some cases. But some people keep their birds in the house when they are there and they even know of some people who have african hawk eagles sleep on the top of their open bedroom door at night. But with parrots they live in a relatively small cage in the house so its a lot more convenient to have it flying and living around the house. Where as with a bird of prey they need a large outdoor mews (a falcon cage) that is generally 3m x 3m and bigger. So it is not as easy and ofcourse because of much larger wing spans, talons, skittish behavior and predatory behavior could pose dangerous to both humans, other pets and of course the birds themselves.

@Cagecleaner.... Having a male kestrel is not the best of first birds by any means. To fly a bird of prey successfully you need to control the weight as they do in flying displays at zoos with birds of prey, parrots and other bird species. The kestrel and especially the male (males are smaller than females in the bird of prey world) is a tiny bird and the difference between life and death is a matter of only a few grams. But with larger birds like the american red tale hawk (which is also a first falconry bird) the weight is easier to control because there can be bigger variances in weights with no major effect on the bird. Weight maintenance as well as a lot of things in falconry takes time to understand and to perfect so for someone to start with a bird that is so fragile and easily killed is dangerous for both the bird and the falconers acceptance into falconry.