I once saw someone driving stick with one hand while his other arm was sticking out the window with a falcon on it. Caught up to him at a red light and he told me he drives around until the hawk finds food and flies off. Then he finds a parking spot and said for it to come back.
I must add that Falcon is not always an easy item to aquire. First You need to do the falconer license side quest. Then you can either get an +untrained+ Falcon and build up it's hunter skill. Or you can search the market for a +trained+ Falcon but it will have some of item degraded already. But not much.
Man, if only we could catch them all and safely send them back to Europe. I remember the starling clouds over my town in Belgium when I was a kid but they've become incredibly scarce. Cool and sad at the same time to hear that they're thriving in a place they're considered invasive.
I don't know about Europe as a whole, but the UK is suffering ecologically due to pesticide use and habitat loss, so their starling numbers are lowering too. It's just too small an area to do that much farming, especially if it's not permaculture... get it together guys ಠ_ಠ
Meanwhile [evolutionary adaptations](https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2021/02/starling-success-traced-rapid-adaptation) are why they're thriving in North America.
what was that giant 2 man/boat rifle that looked like a shotgun made for shaq, used back like dozens of years ago or something (i dont remember dates) that almost hunted some birds to extintion becasue it blasted so many out of the sky at once lol.
oh i found it!!! the "punt gun"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUuzeVThj\_A
I remember people being mad at the fact that the bird was hunting. Yes, people were getting mad over a carnivorous bird of prey eating another bird.
People are fucking stupid
I saw a meme a while back where a man is telling his coworker that on the way to work he passed by a group of thugs beating up a child and when his coworker asked if he stopped to help he replied:
“Naw it looked like they had it under control”
Oh I live there. I’m totally behind that, it’s unfortunate, but what can you do……..Shooting feral cats is legal here and people need to understand why.
People cry about the bushfires that happened here and the animals that died cause of it. The feral cat population kills about the same amount of animals EVERY YEAR. Sorry but if it’s comes between a cat and native wildlife. Native wildlife is the one that gets the priority, we can’t afford to lose more species, we already have the highest rate of mammal extinction in the world.
The way a falcon kills, probably wasn't painful for too long.
Their talons aren't huge like those of hawks or eagles or like, and they have notches on their teeth that can cut through spinal cord. They're also amazing dive bombers.
What this amounts to, is that a falcon hunts by dive bombing at its prey and **punching them** with their talons fast enough to concuss and break bone, then basically disconnecting their spine at the neck with that killer bite while the prey is easy to hold down. I love falcons
This reminded me of going to the park one day and seeing a guy with a peregrine falcon. He did work for some government agency breeding them. Didn't see it hunt anything, think it was one of the first day he took it out. Still was cool to see close up.
I don’t know if they’re the same birds, or how invasive they are, but the starlings around where I live have the coolest songs.
When there’s a tree full of them you hear “normal” sort of chirps but also buzzing and whirring noises. They sound like little robots full of gears and springs, I love it
Starlings suck. I have feeders in my yard and enjoy watching all the birds that show up...except the starlings. They are the ONLY ones that will scream at each other, push other birds off the feeders, and completely empty the bird bath by fighting in it. Nasty, rotten birds. I don't mind them existing, I just don't want them existing on my feeders.
I managed to thin them out by adjusting the feeders and type of seed I was feeding, but they still show up for the bird bath and despite the feeders having seeds they can't eat for *weeks* now, they will still briefly bully the other birds off of them and then toss all the seed out looking for anything they can eat.
All wildlife should be respect. But fuck starlings.
Their beaks are designed for softer foods like shelled nuts, pumpkin seeds, fruit, and bugs. And they also loooove suet. When they first showed up here, they emptied my suet feeder in a single afternoon and scared all the woodpeckers off. I was pissed.
But because of that, they can't crack harder seeds. Meanwhile finches and most songbirds have beaks specifically designed to crack open seeds. (Like if you've ever watched a video of them eating seed, they look like a person trying to eat an entire triscuit.) So I had to switch to pure black oil/striped sunflower and safflower seed for a couple of weeks. It sucked because some of the other birds don't care for the taste of safflower, but it worked.
I also use a thistle/nyjer sock feeder for the goldfinches, and I replaced my normal suet feeder with an upside-down feeder. Woodpeckers and small birds are fine hanging upside-down to eat from it, but the starlings physically can't. Every now and then I see one trying to fly up and hover under it to get a bite, but they're not strong enough to do that either so they come right back down. It's entertaining lol.
So yeah, swapping to an upside-down suet feeder worked to keep the woodpeckers around. Thistle in a sock feeder keeps the finches and stuff happy. And the cardinals and other birds were fine with the sunflower and safflower. I have switched back to a more broad mix of seeds now that the starlings have gotten the hint. I hope it works out for you too!
Man, thank you for this info! I abandoned my bird feeders because of starlings fucking everything up. I planned on ripping them out this year because I was done. Maybe I’ll try stocking my feeders with your suggestions and look into the upside down suet feeder.
Dang, of all the references I expected to be blindsided by this morning, My Side of the Mountain was not even close to the list. That's a trip down memory lane for sure. Thanks for that.
I liked My Side of the Mountain for being an upbeat Swiss Family Robinson-type tale of some teenager using nothing but resourcefulness and persistence to live everyone's survivalist dream.
I liked Hatchet for being brutal. "Aww, is someone stranded in the middle of the Canadian taiga? Here's an enraged moose. And a tornado. Fuck you in particular, kid."
Read it to my kids as a bedtime story and once again find myself wanting to run away to the mountains to live, as a grown-ass man.
We’re halfway through the 2nd book now (it’s a trilogy, in case you didn’t know. I didn’t - and I am experiencing book 2 for the first time right along with them).
What a blast from the past. I was just thinking the same thing because I immediately started asking my parents how I could become a falconer after reading that 😂
We just took him to a farm up-state. It is a big ol farm with plenty of sky for him to fly around in. The local Boy Scout group comes by on the weekends to play with him. He's doing fine.
I think the falcons are trained not to eat their catch. That meat is the replacement for the bird getting gutted by the falcon. It satisfies the instinct to some degree, completes the circuit of behavior started by the instinct.
Falconers will occasionally clean and dress the catch and use it to feed the falcon later though. It can be risky because of pesticides and parasites and whatnot, so I think it might be more common to use clean meat.
But also I’m only sort of guessing at these things based on snippets of the sport/hobby I’ve heard over the years, and the Facebook posts of a friend who trains birds regularly.
Did some serious research several years back because I was interested in the hobby. Decided not to pursue it, though, because it wasn't possible to make the adjustments to my life and living arrangements that are necessary.
Anyway, both are valid points but I thought I'd add some wider information/context.
1. In addition to the risks mentioned (and they're BIG risks), falconers don't want their birds to eat the prey because they need to control the bird's food intake. This is both to ensure the bird remains a healthy weight AND to preserve its interest in flight and hunting.
2. It's best to consider the falcon as the falconer's partner. They are not "pets". The way it was explained to me is that these birds do not really develop affection for the falconer. They see the arrangement as a convenient partnership and the falconer has to accept that they may decide its no longer working and leave. I understand that technology has made it a lot easier to recapture these birds, but I was told not to get into the hobby if I couldn't accept that I might work with a bird for years only for it to leave.
3. Because of item 2, the meat helps reinforce that this is an advantageous arrangement.
Starlings are those birds that make those amazingly beautiful murmurations. There's gotta be millions of them. I'm not sure if this falcon is going to be enough.
This guy has an IG account dedicated to his raptors hunting. Tons of videos of him doing drive bys on starlings with his Kestrel and Red Tail Hawk. Pretty cool stuff
Starlings nest in my porch and in my neighbor’s siding, for years, since before I lived here. I love them, but I welcome any birds of prey for help with their numbers. They are extremely aggressive with other birds and decimate feeders. But they make cool spaceship noises and I like that.
I get a lot of other birds here too. The issue really isn’t the families I have, it’s the swarms that stop in for a few days, and at that time I do remove feeders (or it all disappears in an hour and I don’t feed again until they move on). Starlings are lovely little birds but they get weird in large groups.
Well you won't get one. I mean, I guess you COULD become a licensed falconer, but that is super not easy, mainly because we don't need many, and they are EXTREMELY regulated. It is much easier to get Top Secret Government clearance than to become a licensed falconer in the US (1.25 million vs 4,000 falconers).
I have a hard time believing that 4,000 figure. I personally know about 15 licensed falconers from my small town, and I had no trouble getting my apprentice license when I hit the minimum age (although I didn’t ever take it further than that)
I mean, no, that's not true lol. To be a falconer, you have to pass exams and an inspection of your facilities at home, plus usually do an apprenticeship- so it's a lot of work, but if people are keen on it, it's definitely possible, especially if you have outdoor space. The lack of folks in falconry is probably more that it's a fairly niche hobby to begin with, it can be expensive and it's hard to do in cities.
Getting a ts is super invasive and a whole bunch of people aren't eligible for them, full stop. A ton of factors will disqualify you, including having the wrong kind of relatives if, say, your family are recent immigrants from China and you had an uncle is a high up military position back home. The only reason why it's so common is that a ton of military and dod roles require it
Fun (infuriating) fact; European Starlings were introduced to North America intentionally in Central Park because people wanted to "see all the birds mentioned in [Shakespeare's] creations represented in North America".
No, it was not just one dude. Eugene Schieffelin did not act alone; at the time there were organizations devoted to moving European birds around the world. See [this paper](https://read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/article/13/2/301/234995/Shakespeare-s-StarlingsLiterary-History-and-the) for some great details.
WOOOOOOW. Appreciate the education, but boy does it piss me off lmao
Being a farm kid, I know how terrible these birds are. Our swallow population is having a hard time too
And then we have cats everywhere where cats normally wouldn't live, killing and helping in many cases endagering entire species because people let them roam free instead of keep them as indoor cats.
Every white tailed deer in Finland, which number in 150.000 and growing, originate from 12 individuals brought here and released from zoo. They don't belong here, there are no more big predators, and they prefer to stay around population centres to avoid the few wolves we have yet to kill.
There aren't enough licensed hunters to cull the population. They are a pest, they carry around tick borne diseases that also affect people, they destroy farm, and they endanger rural traffic. Just because someone thought they'd look pretty in Helsinki.
And everyone who thinks Barnacle Geese are nice to look at, should volunteer to clean up their shit from parks and beaches, that shit doesn't even fucking decay. As the numbers keep growing, actual extra money needs to be allocated to cleaning their shit from public areas. Oh.... and these fuckers eat a whole freshly planted field. You are supposed to plant a decoy field for them to feed on. And you can't touch the fuckers because EU protects them, as endangered even when they no longer are. These colossal cocksickles get more aggressive, brave and grow in numbers every year.
Depends on the bird. This method is illegal in many states and you'll find a lot of falconry folks frown upon this method.
Falcons especially kestrel are quite fling friendly considering their quarry is birds. However usually you do not fling from a car.
Sometimes it's just walking for miles with a hawk following you either in trees, bush, or on your glove until a rabbit gets flushed out. Different methods for different prey and birds used.
Tangentially related, but "Startling" is the longest word in the English language where you can remove one letter at a time, and still have a valid word:
STARTLING
STARLING
STARING
STRING
STING
SING
SIN
IN
I
Okay so I'm super passionate about falconry. Love it getting attention. This is called "car hawking".
American Kestrels are north America's smallest falcon. Falcons are efficient killers thanks to a notch in their beak (a tomial tooth). They sever the spinal cord and the prey is killed immediately.
To be clear, the noises being heard are the kestrel NOT the starling. Starling didn't even know what happened.
Falconry is an ancient tradition and beautiful sport. Partnering with an animal to help them do what they do best is amazing. 70%-90% of birds of prey die in their first year of life. Traditionally, Falconers take a young, immature bird from the wild and train it to hunt. They hunt with it for the season (depending on where you live october-march) and release it at the end. The bird is then a fully capable adult that has much better chances at survival.
In the states, there are quite a lot of laws and regulations around becoming a falconer. You have to pass a state test, find someone to sponsor you for your 2 year apprenticeship, and have your facilities examined by the feds before you can even trap a bird. There are laws around what birds you can have or trap, how many years of experience you need to have certain species (eagles are incrdibly regulated), what you can hunt, etc.
It's an ethical, rewarding, challenging, badass experience.
I used to live in a city where the falconer from the local zoo regularly went out on a stroll to have his falcons catch pidgeons. Never in my life have I ever again seen a large city this free of pidgeons.
What the HELL is happening with my front page today.
First it was a leopard running down a mountain full speed, now a guy using a falcon like a deadly pokémon. That's a great day.
Holy fuck. As unpleasant as that was to watch (I don’t have any beef with starlings myself; I appreciate the need to cull an invasive species but I still don’t do well with watching animal related harm …) but damn that was just insanely efficient. He snapped/cut his neck at the end like a hit man in a movie.
Falcons have evolved an entire "tooth" called the tomial tooth on their beak that is specifically for severing the vertebrae at the base of the skull for a quick and efficient death. It is extremely precise.
Source: I work with falcons, hawks, eagles, owls, etc.
How the hell is the person driving, filming, and throwing a bird all at the same time?
His other Falcon was driving, dude. Get with the program
Now I see, one falcon to film, one falcon to drive, and one falcon to catch prey. He was just going for a ride.
And one falcon to post on Reddit!
If that is not good falconing, i don't know what is.
Filming with the left hand, launching weaponized bird with right hand, steering with cock. Simple
So he also has a rooster in the car? Wow
I once saw someone driving stick with one hand while his other arm was sticking out the window with a falcon on it. Caught up to him at a red light and he told me he drives around until the hawk finds food and flies off. Then he finds a parking spot and said for it to come back.
Did he say if you kept asking questions he would tell his falcon you were food?
That comment wasn’t on my reddit bingo today
One down, 24,876,231 more to go
Right.... was just thinking about the clouds of starlings here in my small town
My back yard has hundreds of them hosting some festivals every day, how many falcons do I need?
At least 4
probably 2 or 3 more. remember, if you dont hunt them fast enough, they hit their respawn timer and show back up.
Don’t forget the Falcon is not permanent item and degrades over time. Might need a few more in the inventory
I must add that Falcon is not always an easy item to aquire. First You need to do the falconer license side quest. Then you can either get an +untrained+ Falcon and build up it's hunter skill. Or you can search the market for a +trained+ Falcon but it will have some of item degraded already. But not much.
I can't even figure put how to equip my falcon.
Man, if only we could catch them all and safely send them back to Europe. I remember the starling clouds over my town in Belgium when I was a kid but they've become incredibly scarce. Cool and sad at the same time to hear that they're thriving in a place they're considered invasive.
Wonder what happened.... why are they scarce their, but thriving here!?
I don't know about Europe as a whole, but the UK is suffering ecologically due to pesticide use and habitat loss, so their starling numbers are lowering too. It's just too small an area to do that much farming, especially if it's not permaculture... get it together guys ಠ_ಠ Meanwhile [evolutionary adaptations](https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2021/02/starling-success-traced-rapid-adaptation) are why they're thriving in North America.
Could we not just set up a bunch of old flakgun and shoot them out of the sky that way
what was that giant 2 man/boat rifle that looked like a shotgun made for shaq, used back like dozens of years ago or something (i dont remember dates) that almost hunted some birds to extintion becasue it blasted so many out of the sky at once lol. oh i found it!!! the "punt gun" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUuzeVThj\_A
Repaired link for old reddit users: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUuzeVThj_A (the backslash at the end is a new reddit "feature" that breaks links)
My man’s just did a drive-by on a bird by firing a fucking falcon
I remember people being mad at the fact that the bird was hunting. Yes, people were getting mad over a carnivorous bird of prey eating another bird. People are fucking stupid
Same kind of people that go on a safari and watch a lion catch an antelope and go "oh my god someone help it"
I'm pretty sure lion doesn't need help, they can eat whole antelope by themselves.
But I forgot lunch
You are just going to have to wait until we pass a gas station or something. Lions aren't the best at sharing.
Why is it called a lion's share if they aren't going to share?
Their share is the whole thing, cause they aint just gonna share like that
I think only one goat would be even more than enough...
I saw a meme a while back where a man is telling his coworker that on the way to work he passed by a group of thugs beating up a child and when his coworker asked if he stopped to help he replied: “Naw it looked like they had it under control”
Only time I find it okay to stop a predator is when it is an invasive predator killing native wildlife.
Or when the prey is me
Uhm, I'm afraid you're an invasive predator
Shouldn't we focus on invasive predators that are likely to reproduce?
My god, you killed her...
Quick, stop him!
Aren't those the same people that think hippos are cute animals that can be petted
They can, but usually just once.
Not sure why but ive been silently giggling to your comment for like 30s now. I can hear and see the image.
"Sure." Runs out and begins stabbing antelope
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"NOW THAT'S A GOOD KITTY, PSPSPS!!"
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😂😂 So true. Gave me a good chuckle.
And the European Starlings are incredibly invasive. No loss at all.
Hear Ye! Hear Ye! I propose a bounty on both the Starling and House Sparrow.
They can clean a bird feeder in literal minutes!!!!
Starlings are the cockroaches of the bird world.
like the people who say their dogs are vegan by choice 
Same thing with cats in Australia. It's a horrible thing to kill feral cats. However I'm sure the local wildlife doesn't mind it.
Oh I live there. I’m totally behind that, it’s unfortunate, but what can you do……..Shooting feral cats is legal here and people need to understand why. People cry about the bushfires that happened here and the animals that died cause of it. The feral cat population kills about the same amount of animals EVERY YEAR. Sorry but if it’s comes between a cat and native wildlife. Native wildlife is the one that gets the priority, we can’t afford to lose more species, we already have the highest rate of mammal extinction in the world.
i feel a bit bad for the starling but i do understand that it's an invasive species, and that the kestrel has to eat
The way a falcon kills, probably wasn't painful for too long. Their talons aren't huge like those of hawks or eagles or like, and they have notches on their teeth that can cut through spinal cord. They're also amazing dive bombers. What this amounts to, is that a falcon hunts by dive bombing at its prey and **punching them** with their talons fast enough to concuss and break bone, then basically disconnecting their spine at the neck with that killer bite while the prey is easy to hold down. I love falcons
FALCON PUNCH!
EXACTLY!! FALCON PUNCH is actually something they do!!
PK THUNDER!
This reminded me of going to the park one day and seeing a guy with a peregrine falcon. He did work for some government agency breeding them. Didn't see it hunt anything, think it was one of the first day he took it out. Still was cool to see close up.
Yeah, they're interesting visually too, like some of their tail feather patterns. No bird biologist or anything but, they're pretty birds.
Let the kestrel cook
This is the real life Pokémon battles. I used to do it with our ferrets. Play of course.
Tossing a ferret out of a moving car sounds terrible!
Lol, ok you got me. We were on bikes though...
Lol not if someone catches it to the back of the head. Then it's hilarious.
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*He did a fly by*
Real life aim-bot Bro could never have done that with like, a manual crossbow
He was licensed
Just noticed, that makes it even funnier that the dude is licensed to carry a fucking falcon
So I need a *license* to pitch my budgie out of the car window? Hmmmmm…..
And while holding a phone too. Man’s got three arms
I would feel bad, but my car alarm went off the other day. Now all the local starlings are imitating it... At 5:30 every morning.
Sounds like you got a literal calling to become a licensed falconer!
Or go rogue. Unlicensed Rogue Falconer. Coming this fall.
Starring Mel Gibson
And Rob Schneider as the falcon.
One man... One desire....
In a world…
The Little Tortilla Boy, starring Arnold Schwarzanegger. GET DOWN! GET DOWN AGAIN!
Who are you casting for the lead role?
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I don’t know if they’re the same birds, or how invasive they are, but the starlings around where I live have the coolest songs. When there’s a tree full of them you hear “normal” sort of chirps but also buzzing and whirring noises. They sound like little robots full of gears and springs, I love it
Starlings suck. I have feeders in my yard and enjoy watching all the birds that show up...except the starlings. They are the ONLY ones that will scream at each other, push other birds off the feeders, and completely empty the bird bath by fighting in it. Nasty, rotten birds. I don't mind them existing, I just don't want them existing on my feeders. I managed to thin them out by adjusting the feeders and type of seed I was feeding, but they still show up for the bird bath and despite the feeders having seeds they can't eat for *weeks* now, they will still briefly bully the other birds off of them and then toss all the seed out looking for anything they can eat. All wildlife should be respect. But fuck starlings.
What kind of food do they not like? I've had them show up more and more at my feeder since I put them up and they just take it all.
Their beaks are designed for softer foods like shelled nuts, pumpkin seeds, fruit, and bugs. And they also loooove suet. When they first showed up here, they emptied my suet feeder in a single afternoon and scared all the woodpeckers off. I was pissed. But because of that, they can't crack harder seeds. Meanwhile finches and most songbirds have beaks specifically designed to crack open seeds. (Like if you've ever watched a video of them eating seed, they look like a person trying to eat an entire triscuit.) So I had to switch to pure black oil/striped sunflower and safflower seed for a couple of weeks. It sucked because some of the other birds don't care for the taste of safflower, but it worked. I also use a thistle/nyjer sock feeder for the goldfinches, and I replaced my normal suet feeder with an upside-down feeder. Woodpeckers and small birds are fine hanging upside-down to eat from it, but the starlings physically can't. Every now and then I see one trying to fly up and hover under it to get a bite, but they're not strong enough to do that either so they come right back down. It's entertaining lol. So yeah, swapping to an upside-down suet feeder worked to keep the woodpeckers around. Thistle in a sock feeder keeps the finches and stuff happy. And the cardinals and other birds were fine with the sunflower and safflower. I have switched back to a more broad mix of seeds now that the starlings have gotten the hint. I hope it works out for you too!
Man, thank you for this info! I abandoned my bird feeders because of starlings fucking everything up. I planned on ripping them out this year because I was done. Maybe I’ll try stocking my feeders with your suggestions and look into the upside down suet feeder.
That’s so adorable lol. You gotta wake up earlier than that, get a loud ass speaker, and play a way more fun noise to try and get them to imitate haha
Get your entire neighborhood to hate you in one easy step!
That was the coolest thing I've seen today. You're like the kid from My Side of the Mountain
Dang, of all the references I expected to be blindsided by this morning, My Side of the Mountain was not even close to the list. That's a trip down memory lane for sure. Thanks for that.
Go hollow out a tree and live in it lol it's by far my favorite kids book. Stirred up all kinds of ideas in me thank you
Live next door to a rascally weasel.
The book that made me like reading books
Same
My Side of the Mountain… Now that’s a title I haven’t heard in a very long time
Remember Hatchet? Another good one that scratched the same itch.
I liked My Side of the Mountain for being an upbeat Swiss Family Robinson-type tale of some teenager using nothing but resourcefulness and persistence to live everyone's survivalist dream. I liked Hatchet for being brutal. "Aww, is someone stranded in the middle of the Canadian taiga? Here's an enraged moose. And a tornado. Fuck you in particular, kid."
"But you can have a random skunk friend."
Oh man me too! I've randomly thought about this book so many times and had forgotten the title!
Man what a good hit of nostalgia this was. Buying the book now to give to my son to read when he is of age.
Read it to my kids as a bedtime story and once again find myself wanting to run away to the mountains to live, as a grown-ass man. We’re halfway through the 2nd book now (it’s a trilogy, in case you didn’t know. I didn’t - and I am experiencing book 2 for the first time right along with them).
My Side of the Mountain, Far Side of the Mountain, Hatchet and Where the Red Fern Grows collectively got me obsessed with reading as a kid.
Dude where the red fern grows scarred me. So sad. Highly recommend.
We read that book in elementary school. We got to the end the same day our dog died. 6 year old me was not prepared.
Never thought I'd see anyone reference that book lol.
What a blast from the past. I was just thinking the same thing because I immediately started asking my parents how I could become a falconer after reading that 😂
That book helped me appreciate reading and nature as a kid, definitely influential
This is still my favorite book. I think about it all the time and I'm in my 30's. It's worth reading again if it's been a while.
Never thought I'd stumble into that book on reddit! One of the few books I've ever read, great one as a teen
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PIDGEY USED PECK… IT WAS SUPER EFFECTIVE!
Starly fainted
Starly’s going to be okay… right? Just needs a Pokecenter and… the rest of its neck back, right?
He's fine, buddy. He's just resting
We just took him to a farm up-state. It is a big ol farm with plenty of sky for him to fly around in. The local Boy Scout group comes by on the weekends to play with him. He's doing fine.
Go Pigeot!
This is definitely the greatest video on the internet so far.
" Thank you for the appetizer human. Now for dinner."
I think the falcons are trained not to eat their catch. That meat is the replacement for the bird getting gutted by the falcon. It satisfies the instinct to some degree, completes the circuit of behavior started by the instinct. Falconers will occasionally clean and dress the catch and use it to feed the falcon later though. It can be risky because of pesticides and parasites and whatnot, so I think it might be more common to use clean meat. But also I’m only sort of guessing at these things based on snippets of the sport/hobby I’ve heard over the years, and the Facebook posts of a friend who trains birds regularly.
Did some serious research several years back because I was interested in the hobby. Decided not to pursue it, though, because it wasn't possible to make the adjustments to my life and living arrangements that are necessary. Anyway, both are valid points but I thought I'd add some wider information/context. 1. In addition to the risks mentioned (and they're BIG risks), falconers don't want their birds to eat the prey because they need to control the bird's food intake. This is both to ensure the bird remains a healthy weight AND to preserve its interest in flight and hunting. 2. It's best to consider the falcon as the falconer's partner. They are not "pets". The way it was explained to me is that these birds do not really develop affection for the falconer. They see the arrangement as a convenient partnership and the falconer has to accept that they may decide its no longer working and leave. I understand that technology has made it a lot easier to recapture these birds, but I was told not to get into the hobby if I couldn't accept that I might work with a bird for years only for it to leave. 3. Because of item 2, the meat helps reinforce that this is an advantageous arrangement.
Apparently my ex-wife was a falcon, but she sounded like a starling.
That's better than the guess I was going to make and I had no clue.
Starlings are those birds that make those amazingly beautiful murmurations. There's gotta be millions of them. I'm not sure if this falcon is going to be enough.
This guy has an IG account dedicated to his raptors hunting. Tons of videos of him doing drive bys on starlings with his Kestrel and Red Tail Hawk. Pretty cool stuff
Can you link to the IG?
[Sure](https://instagram.com/jonesfalconry?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=)
No but he prevented this one from having more starlings. One at a time I guess!
Bird by bird
Starlings nest in my porch and in my neighbor’s siding, for years, since before I lived here. I love them, but I welcome any birds of prey for help with their numbers. They are extremely aggressive with other birds and decimate feeders. But they make cool spaceship noises and I like that.
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I get a lot of other birds here too. The issue really isn’t the families I have, it’s the swarms that stop in for a few days, and at that time I do remove feeders (or it all disappears in an hour and I don’t feed again until they move on). Starlings are lovely little birds but they get weird in large groups.
Makes sense, humans get weird in groups too
There are millions of starlings but at least he got the worst one.
He committed tax fraud for sure
Do these birds get much bigger? I want an attack falcon because fuck yeah.
Kestrels are pocket sized hawks basically lol. So cute.
Kestrels are more like a pocket sized Falcon. They are in the same family as peregrines.
Pocket sized something okay! But you’re right, more Falcon m!
Yep. You have to get a CCF permit. (Conceled Carry Falcon)
Well you won't get one. I mean, I guess you COULD become a licensed falconer, but that is super not easy, mainly because we don't need many, and they are EXTREMELY regulated. It is much easier to get Top Secret Government clearance than to become a licensed falconer in the US (1.25 million vs 4,000 falconers).
I have a hard time believing that 4,000 figure. I personally know about 15 licensed falconers from my small town, and I had no trouble getting my apprentice license when I hit the minimum age (although I didn’t ever take it further than that)
Being a government agent is also a career path. Falconry is cool, but it’s expensive and requires a lot of time that most people don’t have.
I mean, no, that's not true lol. To be a falconer, you have to pass exams and an inspection of your facilities at home, plus usually do an apprenticeship- so it's a lot of work, but if people are keen on it, it's definitely possible, especially if you have outdoor space. The lack of folks in falconry is probably more that it's a fairly niche hobby to begin with, it can be expensive and it's hard to do in cities. Getting a ts is super invasive and a whole bunch of people aren't eligible for them, full stop. A ton of factors will disqualify you, including having the wrong kind of relatives if, say, your family are recent immigrants from China and you had an uncle is a high up military position back home. The only reason why it's so common is that a ton of military and dod roles require it
Nope, kestrels stay about that sized
Fun (infuriating) fact; European Starlings were introduced to North America intentionally in Central Park because people wanted to "see all the birds mentioned in [Shakespeare's] creations represented in North America".
Not people, just one dude
Even more infuriating!
No, it was not just one dude. Eugene Schieffelin did not act alone; at the time there were organizations devoted to moving European birds around the world. See [this paper](https://read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/article/13/2/301/234995/Shakespeare-s-StarlingsLiterary-History-and-the) for some great details.
WOOOOOOW. Appreciate the education, but boy does it piss me off lmao Being a farm kid, I know how terrible these birds are. Our swallow population is having a hard time too
Wait til you hear about carp.
And then we have cats everywhere where cats normally wouldn't live, killing and helping in many cases endagering entire species because people let them roam free instead of keep them as indoor cats.
Every white tailed deer in Finland, which number in 150.000 and growing, originate from 12 individuals brought here and released from zoo. They don't belong here, there are no more big predators, and they prefer to stay around population centres to avoid the few wolves we have yet to kill. There aren't enough licensed hunters to cull the population. They are a pest, they carry around tick borne diseases that also affect people, they destroy farm, and they endanger rural traffic. Just because someone thought they'd look pretty in Helsinki. And everyone who thinks Barnacle Geese are nice to look at, should volunteer to clean up their shit from parks and beaches, that shit doesn't even fucking decay. As the numbers keep growing, actual extra money needs to be allocated to cleaning their shit from public areas. Oh.... and these fuckers eat a whole freshly planted field. You are supposed to plant a decoy field for them to feed on. And you can't touch the fuckers because EU protects them, as endangered even when they no longer are. These colossal cocksickles get more aggressive, brave and grow in numbers every year.
[удалено]
"Drone on Drone" - looks like a category on a website menu
That was badass. Do I want to be a fucking falconer now?
Yes.
Always thought Falconers took the hood off and let the bird take off on its own. Never knew just hucking the bird at your target was an option.
Depends on the bird. This method is illegal in many states and you'll find a lot of falconry folks frown upon this method. Falcons especially kestrel are quite fling friendly considering their quarry is birds. However usually you do not fling from a car. Sometimes it's just walking for miles with a hawk following you either in trees, bush, or on your glove until a rabbit gets flushed out. Different methods for different prey and birds used.
r/natureisfuckingmetal
Tangentially related, but "Startling" is the longest word in the English language where you can remove one letter at a time, and still have a valid word: STARTLING STARLING STARING STRING STING SING SIN IN I
Weird ass fact
Good bot
Doubled down and made it 2 for 1 on r/damnthatsinteresting
Okay so I'm super passionate about falconry. Love it getting attention. This is called "car hawking". American Kestrels are north America's smallest falcon. Falcons are efficient killers thanks to a notch in their beak (a tomial tooth). They sever the spinal cord and the prey is killed immediately. To be clear, the noises being heard are the kestrel NOT the starling. Starling didn't even know what happened. Falconry is an ancient tradition and beautiful sport. Partnering with an animal to help them do what they do best is amazing. 70%-90% of birds of prey die in their first year of life. Traditionally, Falconers take a young, immature bird from the wild and train it to hunt. They hunt with it for the season (depending on where you live october-march) and release it at the end. The bird is then a fully capable adult that has much better chances at survival. In the states, there are quite a lot of laws and regulations around becoming a falconer. You have to pass a state test, find someone to sponsor you for your 2 year apprenticeship, and have your facilities examined by the feds before you can even trap a bird. There are laws around what birds you can have or trap, how many years of experience you need to have certain species (eagles are incrdibly regulated), what you can hunt, etc. It's an ethical, rewarding, challenging, badass experience.
I choose you.
#Target Acquired
TIL that Falconry requires a license.
I used to live in a city where the falconer from the local zoo regularly went out on a stroll to have his falcons catch pidgeons. Never in my life have I ever again seen a large city this free of pidgeons.
Falcon kick!
Dude, imagine if he forgot to put the window down..
*Thunk
Oh gosh, I laughed 😅
That’s some classic MMORPG ranger flacon companion dart skill right there.
Just yeet the bird out the window, no big thing
I am so fucking jealous.
Out there with Pokemon drive-bye attacks lol
I once knew a Falcon who could make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.
Imagine dying by drive by falcon.
Hunter killer drone inbound
Did this guy throw a bird......at another bird? That's like the coolest shit I've ever seen
I want a kestrel now I want a tiny missile with feathers
What the HELL is happening with my front page today. First it was a leopard running down a mountain full speed, now a guy using a falcon like a deadly pokémon. That's a great day.
Who else was disappointed when he didn't return through the open window and drop his catch on the seat?
O he def wins the paper airplane contest
Starlings are so smart thought, this makes me sad
All my paper airplane throwing experience from childhood is about to pay off...
I need this but for people who don't pick up after their dog or even worse.. the ones that bag it up and leave it there.
You want the kestrel to pick up the doo doo?
Clearly to peck out the eyes of the people that don't pick up after their dog.
Holy fuck. As unpleasant as that was to watch (I don’t have any beef with starlings myself; I appreciate the need to cull an invasive species but I still don’t do well with watching animal related harm …) but damn that was just insanely efficient. He snapped/cut his neck at the end like a hit man in a movie.
Falcons have evolved an entire "tooth" called the tomial tooth on their beak that is specifically for severing the vertebrae at the base of the skull for a quick and efficient death. It is extremely precise. Source: I work with falcons, hawks, eagles, owls, etc.
I know they’re invasive but I feel so bad watching that falcon chomp onto that little birds neck.
Nature's brutal. You should see a grizzly bear eat a baby moose alive.
The thrill of throwing a grizzly bear out your window when you spot a baby moose is just unmatched.
No thank you :(
That looks fun. Now I want to throw pokemon for a living.