Normally for a crested goshawk, after they really tame and come to fist in the house, when bring outside, we need to begin the training again as they will be distracted with the new environment and cannot concentrate to the falconer. Having said that, since this hawk is a imprint birds, I think it will not make much different in side the house and outside the house.

At the moment, I can let her free fly to my fist inside the house. She is very calm and didn’t bath as she use to people. The only challenge is to encourage her to fly because she is not very keen to fly.

After about newly a month with me, her overall condition is better. The cere is fully recovered and the feather become more glossy (only certain part that is still not good). I guess to have all feather to top condition, she need to undergo one round of feather change.

by the way, I observe that her talon is somehow longer then many other crested goshawk that I have train before..

Crested Goshawk Talon

from the photo above, seem that the talon have similiar length with her toe..

another photo:

Crested Goshawk Talon

It was few month back… and I didn’t really train him much, just manning him…recently after I manned the new crested goshawk, I found that the chinese sparrowhawk become calmer!! seem like after he saw the crested goshawk being handle by me, he become more confident in me..

Few days back, while try to encourage the crested goshawk to fly to my fist… I saw the chinese sparrowhawk looking at me… I put down the crested goshawk and pick the chinese sparrowhawk up… fix the leash and try to call him… to my suprise he did come to my fist at about 5 feet.. I didn’t call for the second time, just give him his daily feed.

Chinese Sparrowhawk

Since this is the first time I train chinese sparrowhawk I am not very sure if all chinese sparrowhawk will have similiar behaviour or not which is whenever they saw the falconer train or treat other hawk respecfully, they become calmer…

Back to the training, today I try to call her at about 10 feet and he come to my fist immediately without need to think twice…not too bad for the second flight to fist..

Luckily she is not very vocal and seem like she is not food imprint or inheritage any other bad behavior.

I think it is good if I share with you my method to encourage her to jump to my fist or to grab her food with her feet. Well, actually when I get her, she didn’t know how to grab the food with the feet…. in my case, what I do is just giving her larger portion of food… I feed her entirely on quail so, 1/4 of quail will give her no choice but to grab it and eat it by small pieces.

The first step to encourage her to grab it is much more easy compare to the second stage where I need to encourage her to jump to my fist (in a very short distance)… The method that I use is give her the food (in large portion) when she pick her with her mouth I didn’t pull away but push toward her gently. With that, she will not able to tear the quail into smaller pieces but to jump on my fist to grab it…

After many times she will get use to grab the food with her feet…

Then the training to encourage her to jump to fist in longer distance begin…

Crested Goshawk

She did eat on the fist on the first day since she is very tame bird… however, she is not really concentrate on the food but only the environment.

Last night she is more responsive (after 4 days) and can eat steadily on the fist… however, I she is still didn’t jump to the fist… she only try her best to reach the food with her beak and not the feet…

I think she will need more time to train compare to the rest of crested goshawk that I have been train… however, I am sure that she can turn out to be a beast later on… wish her luck… she is the first crested that I train this year… year 2012. Hopefully this year is a good year and I can train many for my fellow falconer here in my area…

I will update you all again later on the progress..

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.

Female Crested Goshawk

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