The season, the molt and the intermew

Stop before spring

Spring is a dangerous season to fly any bird, for several reasons at once, which is why the exam's answer is "all of the above."

• Leaves return to the trees and you lose sight of your bird.
• The molt begins in April, though it is delayed if the falconer keeps the bird sharp-set.
• Hormonal changes push the bird to migrate or seek a mate. Migratory urges resurfacing in April are a real reason a bird does not come back.
• Warm air rises hard in spring, and a bird caught in that updraft seldom returns.
• There is a standing temptation to chase newly arrived passerines, most of which are protected.

Into the molt

If you keep your red-tail through the molt, the goal is to add about twenty percent to her flying weight. A bird in high condition grows better feathers.

The reasons not to fly during the molt also stack:

• A molting bird should be in high condition and low stress so feathers grow well, and feather quality directly determines next season's flight.
• Soft feathers still in the blood break easily, and a broken blood feather is a health problem, not just a cosmetic one.
• A bird in high condition is a bird you cannot reliably control or recall.

Molt sequence is worth revisiting here: buteos, Parabuteo and accipiters start at the innermost primary and work out; falcons start at primary 4 and work both ways. No common falconry raptor starts at the outermost and works inward, which is why that question's answer is none of the above.

Intermewed

A bird that has been kept a full year and molted in captivity is intermewed. The word is not archaic and it does not describe a medieval practice: it just means "an interval in the mews," the summer of inactivity during which a hawk molts. An intermewed bird coming back into the season needs real conditioning, which for a red-tail means hunting, not backyard work.