What kind of bird is this?

[bigbrad73]

How is it any different than owning fish?

 

[foto69man]

Lot more regulations to it than owning fish...I like falconry and respect those that do it, but you have to dedicate alot of your time/life to ddoing it properly

 

[Wiggles92]

Very neat looking bird.
To those who say "Owning a raptor is wrong" How is it any less moral than owning a parrot? Because they're carnivorous, because they should "be left in the wild"?
I have worked with & know people who keep raptors for falconry. Training these birds for falconry actually improves the birds hunting ability by up to 60% over what it would be capable of in the wild since the training teaches the bird to be more selective on it's targets.
As far as the "pets" issue, is this any worse than taking a bird like a Hyacinth maccaw, cutting off it's flight feathers & keeping it in a 5X3 metal cell?
I could imagine that considering the only raptors legal to own as "pets" without a falconry license (which is federally regulated) are those who keep exotic species such as Pied Ravens & European Buzzards & they're pretty cost prohibitive to get in the first place.
Yes, I agree that not everyone is capable or should even CONSIDER getting one, however as long as the birds needs are met, it's kept humanely & given a well-suited enclosure then there is really no issue with that.

Lot more regulations to it than owning fish...I like falconry and respect those that do it, but you have to dedicate alot of your time/life to ddoing it properly

x2. Very well said!

I know that in my state, it takes a few years of training under a licensed falconer in order to begin practicing falconry on your own, and you can only keep the bird after capture for a short period of time before having to release it back into the wild (at least on your first level of licensing). There are also other regulations in place to prevent imprinting such as only birds of a certain age (not extremely young birds) can be captured for falconry purposes; if you screw up in training it and feeding it, the bird can just fly away the next time that you take it hunting, never to be seen again.

 

[Natalie]

I know that in my state, it takes a few years of training under a licensed falconer in order to begin practicing falconry on your own, and you can only keep the bird after capture for a short period of time before having to release it back into the wild (at least on your first level of licensing). There are also other regulations in place to prevent imprinting such as only birds of a certain age (not extremely young birds) can be captured for falconry purposes; if you screw up in training it and feeding it, the bird can just fly away the next time that you take it hunting, never to be seen again.

Absolutely, this is what I mean. I have nothing against falconry. I have a problem with people who go out, find a baby raptor, and hand-raise it with the intention for it to be a cuddly pet. Those animals can rarely return to a normal "wild" lifestyle after they become so heavily imprinted on people. That is very different from falconry. I've worked in a raptor rehab center. There are a few animals there that are permanent residents because they were captured from the wild as babies, had their wings clipped, and were kept in people's kitchens or homes with the sole purpose of having a puppy-tame raptor. The animals are non-releasable. This is very different from falconry, which works with adult animals that have not been imprinted. As I've heard many falconers state, they do not have a "bond" with their raptor, the way that people might have a bond with their pet parrot. The raptor doesn't rely on them for companionship or affection. It still prefers to be a solitary animal. For raptors, that's the way it should be. I'm against imprinting them as babies.