Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Falconry Friday! Deciding when to pull your starters (pics)

I was out with Cookie a week or ago on one of her mule deer photo runs. One of her stops was a juniper/cottonwood setting with tons of juniper berries about. Saw kestrals, coopers, and sharp shins after robins, solitaires, and starlings. I witnessed several hits, but the victims escaped in all instances.

We did see a redtail blindside a flicker mid-flight but did not have enough notice to get the cameras up and going. I did not think they were much for birding.

they're actually pretty good in ambush situations. The RTs on the Cornell cam caught a bunch of pigeons and even a gull last season!

Utahlefty,

first, a big thank you for the excellent Friday threads and photos. I enjoy them immensely and have learned a lot. Your post above answered one of my questions about how much they eat and what you do with their kills. I do have another question...

A week or so back your thread mentioned the paper your daughter was doing on the learning curve of raptors vis-�-vis their mortality rates. You also mentioned how often they had to eat in order to survive. I never would've guessed that.

Anyway, I mentioned your threads to my buddy including the fact that you hunt with Harris Hawks and how they 'team up'. He brought up a good question...in nature how do the HH divvy up the kills? Does the 'killer' eat the entire animal if it is a small one or is everything shared? Does the familial relationship make a difference in food distribution at all? Also, do the 'take turns' with the actual killing or is it more targets of opportunity?

Thanks for sharing your expertise and hobby with us.

Amen Hawk_Driver

Mojo, only the Sonoran / Central American Harris Hawks hunt in family groups. the South American subspecies are solo hunters.

Anyhow, the typical Central American family group will consist of a dominant (breeding) female, 1-2 adult males, and the sub adults from last season's brood. So 4-5 individuals.

in general, the males do most of the bird-dogging / flushing and the females do most of the actual killing.

feeding will progress from dominant female >> juvenile females >> males.

they will continue hunting until all are sufficiently fed

(this is the primary reason HH are good for multiple kills per outing -- as opposed to most other falconry raptors who are one-and-done)


that said, none of them are above horking down a vole or mouse or lizard on the sly when the opportunity arises....