Reading your bird

Why this matters

You will judge your bird's state a dozen times a day for the rest of its life. Almost all of that judgement is behavioural, and the manual gives you a precise vocabulary for it.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to

List the behaviours that indicate a relaxed, well-adjusted raptor

Distinguish the two meanings of mantle

Define rouse, preen, feak, warble, put over and yarak

Signs of a contented bird

A relaxed hawk will preen, raise and tuck one foot, and rouse. All three at once is about as good a report as a bird can give you.

Rouse: all the feathers slowly erect, the bird shakes itself, and the feathers settle back. A sign of tameness and well-being, and most likely when the bird is comfortable and has a full crop.
Preen: straightening and dressing the feathers, typically after a bath or when content.
Feak: wiping the beak against the perch or glove after feeding.
Warble: stretching both wings up over the back. A comfort behaviour.
Mantle: two meanings, and the exam tests both. Stretching one wing and one leg on the same side is a relaxed bird. Spreading wings and tail over food or quarry is defensive, hiding the meal from other animals. A bird mantles over quarry when standing over it, not during the chase.

Digestion, in falconry words

To put over the crop is to move food from the crop into the stomach with movements of the neck and shoulders, which happens just after eating. When all the food has moved through, the crop has been put away. The next morning's casting or pellet is the indigestible fur, feather and bone from that meal, formed into a mass and disgorged through the mouth. It is not a bowel movement, and it is not a sign of disease.

Yarak

An East Indian word with no English equivalent, describing an extreme readiness to kill. A bird in yarak takes a posture that makes it look dangerous, and some will attack anything in front of them. Yarak is only partly a function of hunger. Birds on a regular feeding schedule come into yarak in time, and the best falconry birds will hunt their normal prey while well above flying weight and not in yarak at all. Do not treat "hungrier" as a synonym for "keener."

From the field

You come out at dawn. There is a grey, mucus-covered mass under the perch, tapered at one end. The bird roused as you approached and is now standing on one foot preening. What are you looking at? A normal casting from last night's meal, and a bird telling you in three separate ways that it is well. Nothing here needs action beyond weighing the bird and cleaning up.

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.

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