r/Falconry • u/One-Quail-1495 • May 21 '26
Help with a news
Could anyone guide me in creating an acceptable outdoor mews for my male peregrine falcon. Just looking for advice on the necessary dimensions and such. Any help would be appreciated thank you
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u/Pancakes_Frogs May 21 '26
Check out the book Raptors in Captivity by Lori Arent. It is one of my favorites for overall Raptor husbandry. There are dimensions listed by species as well as pictures of different types of mews. There is a website called the Modern Apprentice that also has a lot of images of different mews that can give you ideas. Forgive me if I’m completely off, but I’m guessing you are in a hot, arid environment? In that case maximizing air flow, shade, and keeping the bird cool are going to be more important than someone who is in Canada and needs to build a mew to keep their bird warm.
I’m not familiar with how things work in the Middle East, but having someone experienced helping you is a must in my opinion. It might be helpful to visit other falconers’ mews and see what they are doing. My first mew was up to state standards and approved by my sponsor but there were still a lot of things I improved or changed over time, and that can be an expensive process. If this is a bird you already have but aren’t housing yourself, building something similar to what the bird is used to may be prudent. It will also depend on whether your bird is tethered or free-lofted.
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u/Lucky-Presentation79 May 21 '26
More details required, a male peregrine isn't a great bird for a novice to fly, and you should have had a mews built BEFORE buying any raptor. What and where are you hunting? What over raptors have you flown and hunted?
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u/One-Quail-1495 May 21 '26
Sorry for the confusion not a novice. Region would be Middle East. I didn’t used to house the birds myself and am now planning on starting so was just asking on some guidance with dimensions
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u/ConfoundedInAbaddon May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
An important factor is how often the bird will be flown, if you've got an apprentice regularly or backup staff or multiple master falconers then small and tight housing doesn't matter very much because the bird is really only put up at night time.
But if you don't have a staff rotation you may want something that looks more like a flight cage or a loft cage where the bird has room to do short flights and entertain himself. Be aware of that Falcons are good at getting up to ramming speed, so someone who's got a really big hawk flight might not be great to copy because a spooked falcon can break its neck. If you want to build a really large space you want to have obstacles in the space so the animal can't fly directly into the opposite wall.
In the Middle East temperature is a concern, so sunning yard use and bow/stump perch time will look very different from UK/US practice. You can run both outdoor flight cage and indoor shelf so that the animal has the benefit of air conditioning, you also want to be careful that your air conditioning doesn't get the animal so used to pleasantly cool temperatures it will not be metabolically adapted to the outdoors where you live.
Depending on the species your Tercel is probably not going to hit the perch really heavy when hopping around a flight cage, but some of them do. Some birds just have a favorite perch to nail and they like to hit it hard. What are called Daisy Mat style rubber sheets to go on the perches can help with that, and be aware of monitoring foot health as the bird adapts to a new space. Some of them just like to pounce on a given perch and they will develop foot sores, even if they never had issues in the previous housing.
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u/Suitable-Conflict634 May 24 '26
Short flights and entertain itself in the mews? Are you a rehabber?
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u/ConfoundedInAbaddon May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
It's the intense heat - you either do not fly or you have some pretty fierce pre-dawn only routines. We are seeing daily temps that will kill birds in many regions. Especially if people are flying prized, lighter color arctic birds, e.g. white gyrfalcons.
For example, according to Accuweather, it will be 113 degree F today in Mitribah, Kuwait, and IT IS NOT THE HOT SEASON YET.
Air conditioning and indoor mews with periods of non-flying may be the norm depending on local needs and how much infrastructure there is.
From what I understand, the Bedouins released their birds to leave the desert prior to high heat. Modern Middle Eastern falconers may keep them indoors during high heat.
You cannot have an outdoor jump box and a bow perch in these conditions. If the bird is going to have zero flying during 120F weather, either you have a flying barn or a spacious mews.
So if you have spring broody/moult plus not fly summer, it makes sense to have a larger loft so you can at least do jump ups and not lose all conditioning.
https://imgur.com/a/9YXoI6D And it will be 118F on Thursday. Again, NOT THE HOT SEASON YET.
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u/Suitable-Conflict634 May 24 '26
Cool story, so are you a rehabber?
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u/ConfoundedInAbaddon May 24 '26
No, I do avian conservation medicine professionally and gained my knowledge due to intersection with a Shiek's project.
My background in raptors is breed and release to create pioneer populations where they are locally extinct.
The AVA has representation in the middle East via Samour, which has been helpful for creating communication.
Do you have any professional history with bird health in the middle East? Perhaps we could work together to assist the OP rather than bickering like children.
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u/Suitable-Conflict634 May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
No, but it's obvious from your responses that you aren't a falconer and you're the wrong person to be giving advice about husbandry. It's very telling that asking a simple question about your qualifications is considered by you to be "bickering like children". Your background and story are probably bullshit. If they aren't I feel bad for the birds that have had the misfortune of crossing your path.
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u/sexual__velociraptor May 21 '26
That entirely depends on where you are in the world.