🐦 Apprentice Birds · 7 min
Manning, conditioning and correction
Why this matters
Almost every training mistake an apprentice makes comes from importing dog training into a species that cannot learn that way.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to
- Explain why punishment cannot work on a raptor
- Describe how to properly exercise a Red-tailed Hawk
- Perform the emergency release from a bind, and know the preferred non-emergency method
Raptors are not social animals
Which means reward and punishment does not work; only reward does. Faced with force, punishment or the threat of force, a non-social animal has exactly two options: escape, or fight back. If your red-tail misbehaves and you "discipline" it, you have not taught it anything except that you are dangerous. The answer to "should misbehaviour be corrected immediately so the bird associates the punishment with the behaviour" is false, and it is false on principle, not by degree.
What does work is operant conditioning: jump-ups to the fist with a varying reward, food used to encourage a response, consistency. Red-tails are commonly trained this way.
Conditioning
Nothing stationary works. Blocking the bird out somewhere it will bate continuously is not exercise, it is stress. Repeated lure stoops belong to falcons. The way to condition a red-tail is to take it to the field and hunt with it. A long walk with the bird following tree to tree or tree to fist beats any backyard routine, and calling it off repeatedly, or fly-ups from a chair or ladder, help, but on their own will not bring an intermewed bird back into hunting shape. Fly it hard and often.
When it goes wrong: the bind
An imprinted red-tail binds to a member of your hunting party, talons in, hanging on, drawing blood.
- Emergency, with serious injury in prospect: grab the hawk by the head and squeeze firmly. Raptors typically let go of whatever they are holding to grab at what is holding their head. It does not always work.
- The next best method, and the preferred one whenever there is no danger of serious injury: pull the rear talon of each foot backward out of the wound and slide the front talons forward.
Throwing a lure or a pigeon is not the answer to a bind in progress, and water is not either.
Aggression develops late
Eyas red-tails are known for aggression as they mature, and it may not appear until the second or third year, arriving with sexual maturity. This is the species that most strongly argues for taking passagers rather than eyases. A lost imprinted red-tail can become a genuine menace to dogs and people.
From the field
Your bird bates hard every time your neighbour walks past the weathering area, and you are tempted to "show it who is boss." What does the manual say you have actually done if you do? Given a non-social animal a reason to escape or fight. The fix is exposure and reward: more calm proximity, food on the fist, and patience, not correction.
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.