Beginners birds.

[blackcrow]

Everybody on the forum talks about your first bird;ie harris,redtail,but whats the beginners falcon?

[Scooter]

Everybody on the forum talks about your first bird;ie harris,redtail,but whats the beginners falcon?

got to be a lanner but i started with a saker .so there goes my theory:oops:

[BlackShaheen1]

mine was a male 1/4 gyr saker did have a kessi bifor that but not for hunting

[Goshawker 20]

Mine was a lanner/lugger Tircel:supz:

[Arsalan]

kestrel will be awsome for u for both purpose,for handling n its a totally beginner bird so go n for kestrel,but remember kestrel is not a hunting bird which u r thinking of it just usually pick up some worms n starlings thts it ......see ya

[parabuteoboy]

kestrel will be awsome for u for both purpose,for handling n its a totally beginner bird so go n for kestrel,but remember kestrel is not a hunting bird which u r thinking of it just usually pick up some worms n starlings thts it ......see ya

STARLINGS! You must be joking.

[Tooker]

STARLINGS! You must be joking.

I think he's in Pakistan

[Miliscer]

Certainly would not recommend a kestrel as a first falcon to anyone - you have to be so careful with food intake and they really don't hunt anything over here (UK)

Would have to be a Lanneret :D

Mike

[Misty]

kestrel will be awsome for u for both purpose,for handling n its a totally beginner bird so go n for kestrel,but remember kestrel is not a hunting bird which u r thinking of it just usually pick up some worms n starlings thts it ......see ya

most definitely not a kestrel. As mentioned previously, these can be very difficult to control weight if you are a beginner and many a kestrel has been killed by bringing too low. There is a point where they cross the line from not jumping for their food because they are too heavy and not jumping because they lack the energy being too low. This is a fine line and the beginner will miss the vital tell-tale signs.
The best bird I feel is a lanner. In the past few years these have been a little difficult to obtain, although they are making a comeback in the market now. If you can't find a lanner, then I would reccommend a saker. If you have only had hawks up to this point I would also reccommend a short course in falcon management unless you have a mentor, as they are different from hawks in many aspects.:yawinkle:

[GregMik]

STARLINGS! You must be joking.


He is not joking.....

http://www.falconryforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=19744


Greg

[Ben C]

I would have thought a Kestrel a little more tricky than a bigger falcon surely??? Just weight alone would be a problem.

[Baywinger]

I have flown kestrels and there not the ideal bird for a beginner, as already been said the weight control is a serious issue here. One little mistake and you'll have one little dead bird. I dont think you can beat a lanner for a first bird, lovely temprement but like scooter, I started with a saker but I did get lots of hands on experience before hand.

[Ben C]

What about a Tiercel Peregrine?

I suppose it all depends on the land and quarry more than anything. No good having the tools and no job to do.

[Elly]

Id always advise against a kessy as a first bird, far too small for a beginner, absolutely no margin for error with the weight.

As its been said, you have to match the bird with the job, if you want a lure bound falcon, id say a lanner. If you want a hunting bird you'd have to consider the land and quarry you have to make the decision.

[Harrisii]

As its been said, you have to match the bird with the job, If you want a hunting bird you'd have to consider the land and quarry you have to make the decision.

correct.
so what is a lanner, as a first falcon, capable of??

[Elly]

nice birds to fly to the lure, females can be successful on rooks.. If i wanted a hunting falcon though i dont think id chose a lanner. I myself have never hunted one, only flown them to the lure, ive always enjoyed flying them, but from what others have told me/what ive read they can be more difficult to get motivated to hunt and seem to be a bit overlooked for the hunting side of things.

[NICKYC]

i would say a lanner,but my first bird was a sakerette,and i have flown all types of hybrids since then including perlins,where food intake and weight control have to be precise, so i would leave kestrels alone.

[Rex06]

hehe funny thread

my first falcon was a eu kestrel (had b.e.o. before)
he was imprinted cause the father died and the mother was acting strange so we had to take the young away.
the plan was a parent-reared but the breader was a good friend...
i do admit she is a bad imprint-> not enouph time put in(not planned)
she screams a litle , not when flying or stops when she sees no hands:oops:
she flys superb and comes to the lure perfectly

cause of the imprint the weight management wasn't that importend i never fed here less than a mouse a day and he never had low energy :lol:
(sometimes i give a day no food cause she gets a pigeon in the evening before)
i am hunting here but it isn't working YET, we once had a few blackbird-tailfeathers ......:cry:

a good planned imprint kestrel is perfect beginner bird i think just go down with the wheigt slowly and when she fly's 10 m go up again with 5-10 gram.
i have litle idee how a parent-reared kes is.(silent probebly) :lol:

also good birs are female lanner falcon or tiercel saker falcon, i THINK


greetzz

[MattSpar]

First decide what you have in the way of quarry, and go from there.

It's not necessary to "start" with a lanner or whatever, because if you can train one of those, you can do so with any of the others.

If you choose a lanner at the start, you've then got to find something at which to fly it, and unless you've access to an estate crawling with partridges (at which lanners will do well), your choice is limited to say the least.

Of course you could content yourself with flying it to the lure if you wish, but the excitement of that will soon pall.

[jolly3642]

my beginners bird was 12 months of buying and reading alot o books very expensive but a must. and also visiting falconry centres . and then bought a male harris hawk trained him up super bird and very quick to learn .now i am breading them this year as i bought a female see what happens

[JMorrison222]

i would recommend a shikra... yess its not a falcon its a hawk ... its a lil package but full of energy .... and very hardy ...... moreover.... in terms of temperapent its easier to handle... and take very lil space.......eats just one sparrow a day ..... and wakes u up every morning at 7 am ....... beautiful bird... hunts quails,patridges, and doves........ higly recommended for a beginner...

cheers
Bilal

[CanadaManada]

Why do some reccomend a male Saker vs the female?

[Leo 1]

kestrel will be awsome for u for both purpose,for handling n its a totally beginner bird so go n for kestrel,but remember kestrel is not a hunting bird which u r thinking of it just usually pick up some worms n starlings thts it ......see ya
a friend of mine had a femail kez an that used to take partridger and small birds but every 1 has there own apinun

[AK Gavin]

i have a male kestrel i bought it for £90 in 2001 and is still a butifull bird it were flying free for 2 years??

[Goshawk]

I think the debate about the Kestrel being Beginners birds , at least some part of it, comes from the fact that there are various subspecies and this there is quit a large size variation between them...Gavin

Thanks for the wake up, Dude!
I have done another species, although not a falconry bird, it is a bird that all of us should be able to see regurlarly: The Common Kestrel.

Falco tinnunculus
F.t. alexandri: Southern and eastern Cape Verde Islands
F.t. neglectus: North-west Cape Verde Islands
F.t. canariensis: Western and central Canary Islands and Madeira
F.t. dacotiae: Eastern Canary Islands
F.t. tinnunculus: North-west Africa and Europe east to central Asia [includes doerriesi, perpallida, stegmanni, ultratinnunculus]
F.t. rupicolaeformis: Egypt and Arabia to northern Sudan [includes buryi]
F. t. interstinctus: Tibet through Northern Indochina and Central China to Korea and Japan
F. t. objurgatus: South India and Sri Lanka (Indian kestrel)
F. t. archerii: Somalia, Kenya and Socotra
F. t. rufescens: West and Central Africa to Ethiopia, Tanzania & Angola
F. t. rupicoluss: Northern Angola, zaire, Tanzania to South Africa (Sometimes classed as independent species, Falco rupicoluss or Rock Kestrel)

http://www.falconryforum.co.uk/gallery/files/798-F.t.alexandri.jpg

http://www.falconryforum.co.uk/gallery/files/798-F.t.alexandri2.jpg
F.t. alexandri

[Raseni]

I also think that the lanner is a good beginners bird or maybe a saker. The first falcon I flew was sakers and peregrines, but that first falcon I bought was a lanner last year, and she has flown good I think. Very good temper, ok flying.

But until I bought her, I just flew other peoples falcons, which I was happy to do, cause I got all the handling and training skill before I started my own.

And after I have flown this lanner, I have grown so fond of the lanner, that I ordered another pair this season, but instead of the ordinary biarmicus, I will try my hand at pure italien feldeggis. So really looking forward to that.

cheers,
Rasmus

[PrinceOfTheWesternDesert]

i would recommend a shikra... yess its not a falcon its a hawk ... its a lil package but full of energy .... and very hardy ...... moreover.... in terms of temperapent its easier to handle... and take very lil space.......eats just one sparrow a day ..... and wakes u up every morning at 7 am ....... beautiful bird... hunts quails,patridges, and doves........ higly recommended for a beginner...

cheers
Bilal

im sure in some serious falconry cultures, shikras are considered to be beginners birds, due to thier availability, and similarity to the birds which the beginners will eventually handle,,
kestrels are very commonly the first bird of young boys in the united states, especially among the unlicensed "pre seriousness" crowd,
as a result,,some lessons are learned hard, but,.i think overall a gentler hand is developed faster,,,
it takes a much more attentive person to care for the smaller, and more delicate birds,,
the most sensitive area being the diet,and ability to recognise critical points in weight control,,
but,,, if a begiiner flew a harris hawk, for several years,, and wished to fly a merlin, i would say he might not be prepared,, whereas, someone who has handled an a.k., or a shikra, has at least dealt with a gramscale, and the speed at which a small falcons breastbone starts sharpening up,,

[MitchTalon]

it depends on the country u are in many people in other countries fly kesses but in england why buy a kess as a begining bird i think there nice but i would get bored with just flying it to the lure as i only have larger quarry to go after i would suggest a lanner every one does but i start traing a older persake and had some problems as not had a bird for 7 years and was probably a bit much to take on straight away but i have learnt alot from it and now was flying her to day and she was very gd and i look bk to when i started and she was awful if ur willing to put the effort in get a saker or saker per hybrid or lanner any bird will be hard if u dont work at it like i was told nothin in falconry happens fast its a big learning curve but well worth waiting for
theres my 2 cents

[BadlyMan2000]

My first falcon was a passage prairie falcon, been flying prairie falcons since!! If you like a challange they are awesome! :supz:

[SSL]

a friend of mine had a femail kez an that used to take partridger and small birds but every 1 has there own apinun

Does he still have it Tigger?

I'm producing a DVD this is the type of stuff I really want to film.

[PrinceOfTheWesternDesert]

My first falcon was a passage prairie falcon, been flying prairie falcons since!! If you like a challange they are awesome! :supz:

i think a passage prairie would be a good first bird,,
pretty durable,,not overly delicate,, and for sure can teach you a thing or 2,,
im sure on the first day , you learned that a prairie bites like no other bird of prey on earth,,lol
and im sure you learned weight control, and how it relates to the birds cooperation,,lol
because with a wild prairie,, you get nowhere till you get over those humps,,lol
with a prairie you learn to handle a bird with respect,,
and i think no other longwing really DEMANDS the respect the way a wild prairie does,,:)

[SolidLeo]

What about Luggers !!! It could be the ideal beginner's falcon. A hardy bird, it is easily trained to wait on perfectly for over half an hour at a stretch. It is able to stand rough handling at the hands of an aspirant falconer.

[PrinceOfTheWesternDesert]

What about Luggers !!! It could be the ideal beginner's falcon. A hardy bird, it is easily trained to wait on perfectly for over half an hour at a stretch. It is able to stand rough handling at the hands of an aspirant falconer.

i have never seen a lugger,i have read some detailed diaries of persons flying them, and have for a long time thought that they must be very similar to prairie falcons,,

[MitchTalon]

my experiance has shown me that luggurs and praires are not that easy to get hold of in the uk and ur more likly to get hybrids or sakers and pers i think next year i should think about trying to fly a luggur or praire to see what there like

[Daave77]

a friend of mine had a femail kez an that used to take partridger and small birds but every 1 has there own apinun

Have to say if he lived over here and didn't use baggies i'd have a job to believe the partridge(r) bit Tig........:rolleyes:

[Goshawk]

Is the Lugger falcon we get here a lot like the Lanner falcon you guys get over there?... Gavin

[Juddy Casper]

a boy friend of mine had a femail kez an that used to take partridger and small birds but every 1 has there own apinun

Has he still got this bird Chris

[Chamokane]

i think a passage prairie would be a good first bird,,
pretty durable,,not overly delicate,, and for sure can teach you a thing or 2,,
im sure on the first day , you learned that a prairie bites like no other bird of prey on earth,,lol
and im sure you learned weight control, and how it relates to the birds cooperation,,lol
because with a wild prairie,, you get nowhere till you get over those humps,,lol
with a prairie you learn to handle a bird with respect,,
and i think no other longwing really DEMANDS the respect the way a wild prairie does,,:)

My first falcon was also a passage Prairie. I flew her for almost nine years and if she hadn't been killed by an eagle I would have been happy to just keep flying her. When I trapped her, I called a friend who had experience with them and asked him what I should do with her. He said, "Don't let her bite you." Too late!:lol:

Weight control was critical in the early years to get her to kill regularly, but after about five years, she just killed most game with a head shot and weight didn't seem to matter much.

She was a strategic thinker on partridge and pheasant right from the start
and always seemed to have a plan. It took her a little longer to figure ducks out. She wanted one so bad that she would land in the water and try to swim the ducks down. That never worked real well.:roll: Once she learned a little restraint, she was a good duck hawk.

I guess the things that made her a good first long wing for me were her fanatical desire to kill game and her understanding that the dog and I were her team. She paid attention to the job at hand and stuck with me.

I guess there are a few things that might give a good Peregrine a bit of an advantage over a Prairie, but if all I could ever fly were Prairies, I wouldn't complain. They do vary some though.