best crow hawk?

[Taffwall]

prob a question asked before, sorry

what bird is best suited to fly corvids and possibly gulls(mainly corvids) off the fist?

would a longwing, hybrid or a shortwing such as gos or spar be best.

the area i have has large open fields but is quiet hilly and has patches of woodland around it.

[Kentish Falconry]

prob a question asked before, sorry

what bird is best suited to fly corvids and possibly gulls(mainly corvids) off the fist?

would a longwing, hybrid or a shortwing such as gos or spar be best.

the area i have has large open fields but is quiet hilly and has patches of woodland around it.

Pere x Saker all day long M8 you could also try a Gyr x Saker but the Females are a bit pricey
Terry

[TMoritz]

I've flown crows extensively for over a decade with all sorts of birds and the answer depends on if you mean car hawking out the window or hawking from long distances off horse or out of a car.

GyrXsakers (I've flown 4 on crows) GyrXprairies (flown 1), pure sakerettes (flown 1), tiercel Harris' (flown 6) and goshawks (flown 1) will all do them if the slips are right.

At short to medium distances nothing is more pathetically easy and boring than flying a new tiercel harris on them. Over the duration though, there is no better bird for VERY challenging short to medium distance slips than a seasoned tiercel Harris. A goshawk can handle short to what I'd call medium-long slips very well also. In fact, on the longer slips of over 100' the gos exceeds the Harris' capabilities but on short slips the harris has intelligence and less velocity that seems to equal more in the bag and some pretty impressive maneuvers.

Saker hybrids are phenomenal on them if the birds are in high condition and if you are trying longer slips. The best slips will be small stoops and ringing flights. In order to get awesome slips with a falcon on crows you must find the smallest falcon that will safely do it. pereXsakers are probably the best for that very reason. My big female gyrXsaker took 37 in a season (more than a hundred less than my tiercel harris mind you) and all but two of the kills were disappointing. If the falcon is too big the crows just die on the ground without much style. Also, the falcons are inferior to the HH and gos in close because the shortwings/broadwings have more maneuverabilty at short range. At long range the falcon forces the crow to take flight and it catches them with velocity in a tail chase, not a highly maneuverable dodge and duck type of flight of a hawk at short range.

Hope this helps you out. Corvid hawking is fantastic if you match the raptor to the available slips.

Regards,

Troy Moritz
USA

[Berkut]

Pere x Saker all day long M8 you could also try a Gyr x Saker but the Females are a bit pricey
Terry
Totally agree.

[BrianM]

Totally agree.
ditto

[Isaac]

I've flown crows extensively for over a decade with all sorts of birds and the answer depends on if you mean car hawking out the window or hawking from long distances off horse or out of a car.

GyrXsakers (I've flown 4 on crows) GyrXprairies (flown 1), pure sakerettes (flown 1), tiercel Harris' (flown 6) and goshawks (flown 1) will all do them if the slips are right.

At short to medium distances nothing is more pathetically easy and boring than flying a new tiercel harris on them. Over the duration though, there is no better bird for VERY challenging short to medium distance slips than a seasoned tiercel Harris. A goshawk can handle short to what I'd call medium-long slips very well also. In fact, on the longer slips of over 100' the gos exceeds the Harris' capabilities but on short slips the harris has intelligence and less velocity that seems to equal more in the bag and some pretty impressive maneuvers.

Saker hybrids are phenomenal on them if the birds are in high condition and if you are trying longer slips. The best slips will be small stoops and ringing flights. In order to get awesome slips with a falcon on crows you must find the smallest falcon that will safely do it. pereXsakers are probably the best for that very reason. My big female gyrXsaker took 37 in a season (more than a hundred less than my tiercel harris mind you) and all but two of the kills were disappointing. If the falcon is too big the crows just die on the ground without much style. Also, the falcons are inferior to the HH and gos in close because the shortwings/broadwings have more maneuverabilty at short range. At long range the falcon forces the crow to take flight and it catches them with velocity in a tail chase, not a highly maneuverable dodge and duck type of flight of a hawk at short range.

Hope this helps you out. Corvid hawking is fantastic if you match the raptor to the available slips.

Regards,

Troy Moritz
USA

Wow! If only all questions on the IFF were answered in such detail by someone with that much personal experience! Great post! :supz:

[Crow Buster]

Depends what your after, If you want a 5 second mugging or are carrying out pest control then a harris or gos would seem to fit the bill. However, if you want to watch an aerial contest that could last over 5 minutes and travel for a few miles then you need a falcon. The best falcon for the job has already been mentioned, Pere/Saker.

[GosHawking2Day]

Perexprairie:supz:

[Taffwall]

thanks everyone, especially you, troy! thanks for sharing youre experiences.
i notice that there are few british falconers who agree with the male hh being a great crow hawk, every one seems to favour a gos or falcon. i wonder if there is a difference in your crows to ours, or perhaps even the hh.

anyway thanks again all v interesting. its given me a right headache.
so much to consider.

[LanczSpringer]

what is the best way to get the bird wedded onto this quarry?
My tiercel Harris showed no interest in these or magpies last season, Ive got the larsen going and working and hes had a couple of meals of magpies now!

How did you get your bird wedded to corvids?

[TMoritz]

To get a Harris wedded to crows bag it on a frozen crow carcass from out a car window to the "crow lure" 10' away. After doing this for a few days give it a go on some very close and easy crow slips.

Contrary to the erroneous texts that have been parrotted by so many authors that never did it either...FEED THE BIRD ON WARM CROW. It is a old wives' tale that a raptor will never take them again if they are fed from the crow. A raptor will almost always wed to a quarry if it is fed from the warm meat of a fresh kill. Sorry to vent, but I'm mighty sick of seeing new falconry books come out by neophytes repeating the "ancient wisdom" of crow hawking....if you believe these tales you should also use leaches on your wounds and expel demons from sick hawks! (I have not yet read Nick Foxes' crow hawking book, I'm certain it is an exception to my negative critique above)

[Goshawker 20]

female peregrine hands down:supz:

rob speakman:supz:

[TMoritz]

Female peregrines are very good crowhawks over vast open spaces. Adding saker to a cross (or prairie for that matter) encourages them to go into heavy cover.

The falcons tend to pursue harder knowing that they will get a kill. I've seen a saker go into a tree at the end of a magnificent chase to get its quarry. Kills on the ground or in cover aren't majestic things but the chase leading up to that sometime is.

In E.B. Mitchell's book he states that some of the peregrines they flew took well over 100 crows in the spring and they still did tremendously on partridge and grouse in the fall. Many folks think "double duty" longwings are impossible...if they learn to tail chase crows they won't stoop game. (hogwash)