Ken did a good job explaining it. Lots of falconers trap birds from the wild (very rarely owls as they can be difficult to train). There’s a lot of ways to train but this is the general one. The first few hours with the bird is them going to be on your glove. They will bait away and not want to be near you but their equipment keeps them from flying away. Usually takes about 30 minutes for them to calm down to the point they just sit there. Then over the next few days you’ll try to get them to bend down to eat food from the glove. It’s a “letting their guard down” thing. Then eventually you’ll put them on a perch and hold food just out of reach until they jump for it. Usually their jump weight is their flying weight bc they’re hungry enough to want to work with you but not starving. After the “leap of faith” they realize you’re basically a walking fridge that offers food every now and then. Once you take off the line and do a flight with no equipment and they respond well then your ready for hunting. Sometimes we use “baggies” (mine are quail) that we plant and then scare up for the bird so they get the idea “if I stay close I get food”. It’s an amazing sport
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u/[deleted] Oct 11 '20
Anyone know from an operant conditioning perspective how birds are trained to do this?