On The Road: Bald Eagle Eating in Hotel Room

Here's a little video of a few of our birds set up in a hotel room. Sometimes when we travel to distant places we end up sharing our rooms with our feathered coworkers. We end up rearranging the rooms to suit the birds and set up perches and rubber mats to keep them comfortable and the rooms clean! Here we can see Liberty the bald eagle and Millenium the peregrine falcon having their dinners.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• birds
• raptors
• rats
• quail
• hotel
• room
• sanctuary
• food
• sleep
• pets
• bed
• eat
• eating
• chunks
• poop
• mats
• water
• bath
• bald eagle
• great horned owl
• peregrine falcon

[killerkitty777]

wow...i want to take an apprenticeship ^_^...if u have captive bred birds, do they have to be taught to hunt? what makes is the difference from wild caught when it comes to training, hunting and handling? I am glad my area has no restrictions on owning eagles...i think a SMALL Kestral will do fine tho lol. sorry for the Q's, I don't know a falconer personally. I work with exotic/pet birds. do captive babies behave 'tamer' ..do they have the same 'instinct'?so interesting, excited to hunt :)

[WorldBirdSanctuary]

@killerkitty777 Hunting is instinctive for the most part. The birds know how to hunt, they just need to practice to get good at it. The big difference is wild caught have definitely been parent reared and therefore not imprited on humans. Captive bred hawks are fine as hunting hawks so long as they are mostly parent reared. Imprinted birds can be aggressive toward humans. Whether captive or caught, they are not tame. A captive bred raptor has all the attitude and instinct of a wild one.

[WorldBirdSanctuary]

@killerkitty777 Also, I might add that since they are still wild animals, they can be very dangerous. Even a little Kestral likes to use its feet on flesh once in a while during a bad mood. It takes lots of time and training to work with raptors whether used in education, as our birds are, or in falconry. The best road is to find a falconer in your area who may be willing to sponsor you. Try looking online. Also read as many falconry books as possible, so when you find a sponsor, you're ready.

[Thehunterof1998]

Wow that's really cool!! I am almost an apprentice falconer in the northwest and I was wondering how you got a bald eagle or barn owl? Both species are illegal here even though the populations, I'd say, are pretty thick. Do you hunt with the eagle? If so, what is the quarry? Are you rehabillatators? Please respond. Great video, I really enjoyed it.

[WorldBirdSanctuary]

@Thehunterof1998 Thanks! Yes, we are rehabilitators as well as environmental educators. All of the birds you see in the video are on our permit as education birds. Some are rehab birds and some are captive bred. Though we have a few retired falconry birds, none of of them hunt anymore. We do fly a few bald eagles at special events like Cardinals and Blues games (check out our videos) but Liberty came to us as a rehab bird and can't be flown due to his injuries.

[killerkitty777]

@WorldBirdSanctuary I have been looking to buy some books online but i not sure where to start. I will call my local falconry club 2 ask for recommendations. there is a sponsor posting apprenticeship in my area :). I have wanted to do this for years but no chance until now.see, I was debating wild-caught vs. bred, I don't know how imprinting affects a raptor. I know exotics, but they dont need to catch food, so i dont know the problems. I wouldnt want 1 so tame i' d hand feed it meat for life :S

[twotailedavenger]

Liberty: Ooh, room service! I love this hotel!

[swanheart710]

There is simply nothing that can beat an eagle or a falcon for graceful and powerful beauty...very sweet video, and amazing birds!!!

[PassionHeartDevil]

I dono if I would eat a rat if I were one of these birds.

[simbirdcom]

Great birds ~ :-)