Soaring, diving, screeching through the sky, the birds of prey have always enthused mankind from the break neck speed of the peregrine falcon to the ghostly appearance of the barn owl. The raptors have only further fuelled mankind’s interest in flight and speed.

Falconry is a sport with over a 4000 year history, linked with Kings and Queens this past time has been held in high esteem by many for years. It requires a certain kind of person embrace this world and to form the relationship between bird and man. Unlike many animals that have partnerships with humans birds of prey can’t be domesticated, they cannot truly be tamed. The bird will revert back to its wild state despite tolerating handling and hunting with its human even after many years.

All birds of prey have characteristics that set them apart from the rest of the birds.

The beak — A sharp beak, curved at the tip, designed to rip and tear apart its prey. It has been observed that falcons use their beak to severe the spinal cord of its prey.

The talons — The feet of a birds of prey are often its best weapon. With powerful leg muscles and sharp talons, these feet have been perfectly designed to catch, and carry prey. The design is testament to this by the difference in thickness and curvature of the talons being related to the type of prey it carries. The feet of a bird of prey are not just for carrying and catching the prey, the bird can exert powerful pressure through them to crush its prey or the pierce the soft tissue and vital organs of its quarry.

The eyesight — The birds of prey are well-known for having a very keen eyesight, this can attributed to the relative size of the eye within the skull proportions and the very fast eye muscles for focusing. The daylight flying birds have full colour vision, accurate depth perception from the dual fovea (sharpest point of vision) which aids the capture of moving objects. The nocturnal birds of prey have remarkable night vision, through a concentration of rod cells in their retina which detect low light much better than cone cells (which detect colour) (ref). Owls have their eyes located on the front of their heads show as to gain a larger area of binocular vision, similar to the ways humans see.

The diet — All birds of prey are carnivorous, however the diet does differ between each species with some species eating only a few items or some species that will eat a large range such as the Great Horned Owl, which is known to eat over 250 different species of animals.

The birds of prey are also known as the raptor group which is further divided into two main groups, the diurnal (order Falconiformes) birds of prey and the nocturnal (order Strigiformes) birds of prey, better known as the owls. The description of raptor comes from the rapere, the latin word for seizing or plundering, this is very often a good description for the way the birds hunt and is easy to see the connection.

Falconry has been used to develop leadership in multiple different cultures over its 4000 year history. This leadership training has often coalesced with the idea of falconry being a sport of kings. This has tended to be due to royalties previous tendency of being leaders of armies requiring effective leadership skills. The leadership skills come from the fact that you cannot force your aims on the bird but have to work with the bird through skills to achieve the desired result.

The origin of falconry has been lost to time, but it is noted that the Great Khans of Mongolia utilised the birds to hunt for food around 1000BC. There is also evidence of falconry in Iraq and the Arabic world around 2000BC potentially even dating back to 3500BC. Despite its Middle Eastern and Asian origins falconry eventually made it to Europe in 5^th century AD where it became immensely popular especially among the elite. Resulting in a social hierarchy forming a class system over who fly which birds. The fast flying falcons such as peregrines were the bird of choice for the nobility. A lady could hunt with a merlin and a knave often was permitted a kestrel. Whereas the ‘lower’ classes being allowed to hunt with hawks, and if found to be hunting with a bird species deemed above their class it could lead to punishments such as blinding or removal of a hand.

Very little has changed about the activity of flying a bird of prey since its heyday, the tools and equipment has barely changed. The leather anklets for the bird’s legs and the long jesses which attach to the anklets and allow the falconer to hold the bird until release. Even the little acorn bells for audible location of the bird and the protective hide glove to prevent injury to the falconer from those powerful talons. The final piece is the distinct leather hood for the bird only removed before release to ensure the bird remains calm and only spots the prey the falconer wants it to. This action of putting the hood on the bird is known as hoodwinking a term that has slipped into modern English.

Falconry nowadays often starts with falconers hand rearing a chick so as to slowly acclimatise the bird to human interaction and environment. However the falconer is often on the receiving end of regular shows of aggression consisting of the bird of prey flying at the falconer’s face, screaming and talon wounding. The birds can also purposely starve themselves to show their dislike and unhappiness. This relationship is essential as the birds need weighing daily, health care, feather maintenance, training and hunting almost daily in the active season.

Golden Eagle

Golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) are some of the most iconic and well known birds of prey in the northern hemisphere, they are even the national bird of Mexico appearing on the flag. It has been revered amongst falconry previously used to hunt prey such as grey wolves in Europe. It is the most widely found eagle, often maintaining home ranges of up to 200km².

Golden Eagles can reach speeds of up to 150 miles per hour when diving upon their prey using their speed and talons to snatch up prey including rabbits, hares and larger prey like deer and livestock. Golden Eagles live in open country and some vegetated areas. However the eagles avoid human inhabited areas and large forested areas. They nest higher up in mountainous areas or high places such as cliffs, in which they reproduce and return to for several years. The breeding season is usually in the spring between monogamous pairs of birds. Up to four eggs are usually laid in the eerie but only two usually survive to fully fledge three months after hatching.

Barn owl

The common barn owl (Tyto alba) is the most widely distributed species of owl, found on every continent except Antarctica. It is a member of the family Tytonidae which contains primarily different species of barn owl, where the other family of owls, Strigidae contains all other owl species.

Like the Golden Eagles, barn owls form a monogamous pair that tends to pair for life, with breeding taking place at differing times of the year. The barn owls usually lay four eggs on average in nests build in hollow trees, or barn and old buildings hence the name. Barn owls are thought to have propagated the belief in ghosts due to the pale colouration of their underbelly, flying at night and the nesting sites in and around human habitation, and the bird was generally been seen as an evil omen amongst rural settlements.

One aspect of most owl flight is the ability to fly silently aiding in the capture of prey, the prey cannot hear the owl coming thus vastly reducing it’s time to react to the owl. The silent flight is due to the design of the owls’ wings with different aspects all contributing to allow this advantageous skill. The shape of an owls wing is broad with a large surface area to reduce the need for flapping, allowing the owl to silently glide through the air.

However, the main cause for the silent flight is the leading edges of the owls’ primary wing feathers. The feathers are serrated which breaks down the turbulence into smaller air currents (known as micro-turbulences) reducing the turbulence across the wings. Turbulence is the main cause for noise with bird flight. These soft primary feathers allow the air to flow through them muffling the sound and shifting the angle at which the air flows across the rest of the wing.