🧰 Care, Equipment & Facilities · 8 min
Furniture: jesses, swivel, leash, bells
Why this matters
Almost every piece of equipment in this lesson has a version that injures birds and a version that does not, and the exam tests the difference.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to
- Describe an Aylmeri jess and why it is safer than a traditional jess
- Choose a correct swivel and leash
- Explain the correct use of bewits and bells
Jesses
The required equipment list in 173.6(a)(4) starts with a pair of Aylmeri-style jesses (or similar): an anklet, a grommet, and a removable strap that attaches the anklet and grommet to the swivel.
The Aylmeri is safer than the traditional jess because the swivel strap is removable rather than permanently attached to the leg. If the bird twists the jess, the Aylmeri is less likely to constrict against the tarsus. If the bird escapes, it will usually pick out and discard the leather thongs and be left wearing harmless bracelets.
- Always change to slitless field jesses before flying loose. An austringer must, and so must everyone else. Make them long enough to handle easily and punch a tiny hole in the end so they can be stored on a saddle pin on a bag or vest.
- Goshawks need longer field jesses than falcons, because a goshawk is held on the fist while hunting whereas a falcon is released the instant it is unhooded. Most falcons fly with no jesses at all, just bracelets and a transmitter.
- Bracelets that are too narrow are dangerous: they cause leg sores, and they tend to slip around a toe in a half-hitch and cut off circulation. Check the tarsus for calluses and sores regularly. Vegetable bark tanned kangaroo hide is the preferred material.
Swivel and leash
The swivel must be strong enough that the bird cannot break it, but not so large that it weighs the bird down or injures it. The best are custom figure-8 swivels or heavy-duty fishing swivels; a strong ball-bearing type is the preferred general answer. A common dog-leash snap swivel is unacceptable: jesses work out of the clip easily, and it is heavy enough to ruin plumage.
A leash may be strong well-oiled leather or strong supple nylon. It is never attached directly to the tarsi. Braided 1/4" nylon rope makes a better leash than leather.
Bewits and bells
A bewit is a small leather strip that fastens a bell to the tarsus, above the jess. Bells may be mounted several ways, on the leg, on the tail, on a neck mount, depending on the bird and the situation.
Cable ties
If you substitute a plastic zip tie for a leather bewit, it goes on the Aylmeri jess, not the leg. It is inflexible and very strong; caught on a branch or bark it could break the hawk's leg.
Choose two bells of different metals and different tones. The dissonance carries further than two identical tones. Bells matter most exactly when a bird is hardest to see: down on quarry, in cover, at distance. Accipiters make this worse by dragging quarry into a thicket and hiding under grass and brush, where they will nearly let you step on them.
The full starting kit
The manual's basic requirements are a perch, a food supply, scales and a bath. Before you get a bird you also need a gauntlet, jesses with Aylmeri bracelets, three figure-8 swivels, indoor facilities, several hoods in various sizes, a fenced weathering area, and three leashes. Note that a transmitter is not required for a newly trapped bird, though it is required by regulation for any free-flown hybrid.
This lesson is part of the NY Falconry Exam course. Open it in the course to answer the retrieval checks that go with it, track what you have read, and quiz the whole unit. Lessons, quizzes and the glossary are free.