First hawk is an adult female passage bird. She was adult and have very bad condition when my friend get her (from some keeper that catch her and keep her in small cage). There are lots of defect with her… there are scar on her face and somehow her nerve is not in good condition anymore.

Since he have bad experience with human, it take a month for me to manned and train her. Even after a month, she is still hesitate to come sometimes… (by the way, she is very moody). Luckily after 2 month she show her true form and she become an impressive ‘hunter’… I never expect a hawk with the condition to become a fierce hunter like her… She is very brave to catch a very large moorhen… the moorhen is even larger than her… she try to grab the moorhen but because of the size, the moorhen manage to drag her to the pond nearby and she nearly drown. She is also fast enough to catch a common mynah. She ‘run away’ few month back… due to a pair of kites that chase her away from my friend house. (I guess the pair have some nest nearby that is why there are more aggressive toward any other bird of prey in that area)… I wish her luck and hope she have a good life out there… and I am sure she will… since she is a passage bird… and compared to the time she come to me, her condition is totally different.

The second hawk that I train this year is an adult male passage hawk. He is very nice, I think this is the nicest Crested Goshawk that I encounter so far…She is sweet and fast… very good behavior… She fly free by the first week I train her (the owner sent to me the second day the trapper catch her)… and she went to hunting the second week! I suspect she is the record for all passage crested Goshawk (because normally it take more than 2 week for hawk to be able to go hunting). At first the owner plan to breed her with the first hawk that I train. They get along very well and always call to each other. Too bad the female left.

The third crested goshawk that I train this year is a young passage male hawk. She is more stubborn and only eat on my fist on the forth day I get her! Having said that, by the seventh day, she is very calm and socialize well with everyone… the different is that she didn’t like to sit on the bow perch… but on the ground… the owner take it back and will continue to fly her… deep inside me, I think she have a big potential to be a fierce hunter looking at the way she come to my fist and grab the meat…
And till the forth hawk coming… I wish all falconer out there good luck… (I will update this ‘training story” again if I have the chances to train the forth one this year)

I have made the order and now waiting for the CITES and all the necessary document. Hopefully everthing is fine and I can get a good quality bird soonest…

Here is some information about african hawk eagle in wiki.

The African Hawk Eagle (Aquila spilogastra) is a large bird of prey. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae.

The African Hawk Eagle breeds in tropical Sub-Saharan Africa. It is a bird of wooded hills, building a stick nest about 3 feet (almost 1 meter) in diameter in the fork of a large tree. The clutch is generally one or two eggs.

This is a small to medium-sized eagle at about 55–65 cm in length. The upper parts are blackish. Its underparts are white heavily streaked with black. The underwing flight feathers are white with a black trailing edge. The underwing coverts are mostly black with white spots.

Sexes are similar, but young birds are brown above and rufous coloration replaces the black underparts of the adult.

The African Hawk Eagle hunts small mammals, reptiles, and birds up to the size of a francolin. The call is a shrill kluu-kluu-kluu.

Once I got my African Hawk Eagle… the fun will start again… I will try to post the update about the training and hunting…

Here is some photo of the eagle…

Last night, it fly to fist from about a meter space. not too bad, and I think it is a good improvement, after nearly 2 week I have it.

Overall, the progress is fine, however, he still bath from time to time when he is on the fist and also from the perch. however, he is more stable and calm.

Here is the detail of the food that I give him during this training:
Beef- slice to small pieces. one pieces given to him everytime he come to fist. however, if at the end he didnt come to the fist or only come few times, then he will be taken back to the perch and it is a call for the day for him.

I also have order a better falconry glove last saturday. Based on the seller, it has been shipped on monday. Hopefully I will get it somewhere next week… so eager to test the new one with him.

I buy some rope to wrap it so my sparrow can perch on the ‘rope’. Here below is the photo of the bow perch.

another angle:

I should be able to get it maybe tomorrow or the day after. Not sure how it will turn out but hopefully it is good.

Will post the photo later on.

He is doing better today, still bath away, but lesser. since I am not work today, I have some extra time to mann him. I feed him in the morning as usual and in the evening, he take more food.

I can see that the wound on the feed is getting better. However, I can see that it is serious so not very sure if he can recover like other normal sparrow or not. Here is some photo of the sparrow

okay, here is some summary of the traning up until today

First day:
I take him home at around 11pm at night… my friends gave it to me… that night I manned him until about 3am (well, I just sleep on the sofa) so he is on my glove… The good news about him is that, he do take up food from my fist after about two hour on fist..

Second day:
Morning, before go to office, I let him have his breakfast on my fist. He is doing fine, I left him in the kitchen when I go to office. a bowl of water left next to the perch in case he need to drink.

since I put him in the kitchen, he always bath away when I go to kitchen to take something… since at the moment, i stay alone, only me that walk here and there in the house

At night, I didn’t have much time because I need to go out. Therefore, i let him feed on my first… once done I went out… not much time to mann him.

3rd Day – Today
In the morning, as usual I give him his breakfast on fist. He take more meat today compared to previous day… I feed him until he can’t finish it.

Today I guess the progress is that he will be back on my fist on his own after bath… well of course not everytimes and sometime need some ‘encouragement’… however, in the evening, he didn’t take much food

I spent more time with him today compared to previous days. and for today I put the perch in a room and not in the kitchen anymore. He have more time to rest since I am not going into the room… I left the door open so I can see him when I passed by and he also can see me walking in the house.

btw, since his leg is injured when I get him, I think it may take some time for him to fully recover. Today I can see that all the wound have dry up… not ‘bleeding’ anymore. Hope he will get well very soon.