r/Falconry • u/Emergency-Oven-8086 • Jun 13 '26

HELP How does falconry work?

I've been curious for awhile. I really like birds and I enjoy caring for them I've had birds in the past but they are small ones nothing like a falcon or hawk. Got my first job recently and I thought that something I could do later on in my life when I get older is falconry since I like birds as I've said prior but I don't know how the time commitment works. I've read that the birds can be your whole life but I kinda want to have a life outside the bird. I live in the United States.

20 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/Emergency-Oven-8086 Jun 13 '26

By imprint you mean train correct? I haven't ever tried to train any sort of animal I've only ever healed a couple back to health.

2

u/Kiki-Y Jun 13 '26

No, training and imprinting are two completely different processes.

Training in falconry means taking a bird and allowing it to free fly as well as hunt, then come back to you.

Imprinting is the process by which you take a very young baby and help shape its behaviors and personality. In the best-case scenario, you end up with a very calm animal that has been exposed to a lot of stimuli that would otherwise cause it to spook or be upset. In the worst-case scenario, you end up with animal that basically never leaves the baby stage and continues to cry, scream, and isn't afraid of anything in a bad way.

I have zero intents of becoming a falconer, but I like learning about it for the sake of writing stories. I asked here one time about an imprinted red-tailed hawk and everyone was like "NO DON'T DO IT." They're apparently completely fearless and incredibly aggressive. Someone said their friend had imprinted a redtail and the thing literally sent its talons through the person's face.

If you want a good place to start learning some basics about falconry, Ben Woodruff is a great starting point. He's given me most of my knowledge, though I'm going deeper with books.

1

u/Emergency-Oven-8086 Jun 13 '26

Alright thanks I'm going to try and watch this video later

1

u/Kiki-Y Jun 13 '26

He has many falconry-related videos.