Falcons,Hawks, and Eagles?

Question

I run a wildlife educational center and have recently become interested in aviary animals (Birds of Prey), I have concluded with my staff that we should apply for a permit for a Bald Eagle (least concern), and a peregrine falcon also least concern. I applied for 2 Aviary Raptors permits yesterday but the USDA denied me the permit for the falcon, the only way to get a permit for the eagle was if I was an educator (which I am) so i told her she gave me ther permit for the eagle, but when I asked about the falcon she said she can only give those permits to falconers, so does anyone have any other suggestions for other falcon breeds? Endagered does not matter since I'm in the Zoological Association I can always get different animals currently my staff and I are working on several aviary exhibits, most of which are over 1.5 acres in size. The Bald Eagle came in this morning as a chick so im very tired right now since i took on the role of hand raising, any species will be accepted plz anser

Answer 1

All depends on what state you are in. Are you in the US? It is no problem getting peregrines if you are not a falconer. I worked at a zoo and I got one for educational training last year.

  Wait...do you mean that you only want them as chicks? If you want chicks, you have to be a falconer for all species of falcons, and most hawks. A red tail hawk may be the only one you could get without a falconers license.

If you would accept older birds that cannot be released into the wild due to injury or blindness, you can have any species that you would like.

  Older pergrines are excellent- I had the one I worked with trained in 3 weeks to accept people and the jesses. Was at least 2 years old when rescued from the wild (severely broken wing) She was a bit nervous in crowds for a month or two after that, but not too bad.

   Our red tail is great with crowds, but likes to have fun when you try to catch her by going for your face with her talons. Once you catch her, she is a doll though.

Answer 2

Can you get the prairie falcon or gyrfalcon? Ask about the several types of kites and hawks, too.

Answer 3

It's not really advisable to have birds in aviarys just for people to look at, they will get nervous, agressive and scared, they wil try and fly away from visators and could end up injuring themselves. The best way to keep birds on public display is to fly them regularly and have them teathered in front of guests but obviously you would need a falconer and falconers licence to do this. the other thing you could look into is getting a pair of falcons for breeding purposes but then you would need a seclusion pen. this would mean that they were out of sight of visators, however you could equip the aviary with webcams and stream the images into an information room for guests to see. the yougsters could then be used for release or to be sold to practicing falconer to make money for your centre.

I don't know much about american falconry laws, only british.

I suggest you get in contact with a local falconry centre. also you should really know how to imprint a bald eagle properly, if done incorrectly they can become noisy, quick to bite and dangerously agressive.

Hand rearing birds of prey, especially eagles, and keeping them mentaly stable is an artform in itself, trust me, i imprint many birds.