Ask the bird nerd anything

[Kestrel she/her]

My old ama has long sense been buried into the ground so hey, why not make another.

 

Feel free to ask me stuff. Serious or not. I'm ready.

[Ecthelion III he/him]

What Is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

[Kestrel she/her]

23 hours ago, Ecthelion III said:

What Is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

So many.

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

WHy did you change your name Lark?

[Kestrel she/her]

4 hours ago, Darkness Ascendant said:

WHy did you change your name Lark?

Because I'm trying to seperate all my non-official accounts from my official ones. I changed my Tumblr and Flight Rising as well. The only thing that stayed the same was my YouTube and Deviantart.

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

10 hours ago, Kestrel said:

Because I'm trying to seperate all my non-official accounts from my official ones. I changed my Tumblr and Flight Rising as well. The only thing that stayed the same was my YouTube and Deviantart.

ah ok

[Sunbird she/her]

Have any of the birds of prey at the place where you volunteer ever bitten or clawed you? Do you have a favorite kind of raptor?

[Kestrel she/her]

On 8/26/2016 at 1:38 PM, Sunbird said:

Have any of the birds of prey at the place where you volunteer ever bitten or clawed you? Do you have a favorite kind of raptor?

Hm let's see here... I have been attacked by a few rehab birds, but was wearing gloves and with small birds so had no damage. A few small scrapes, but my cat has given me worse. Them attacking is always good; it means that they are afraid of you and aren't used to humans, all the better for them to be released into the wild again (they won't equate humans with food and care, unlike our education birds).

All of the birds are unpredictable, even education, but I've never been hurt in education nor have I seen anyone hurt in ed either. The most an ed bird has done is "foot" someone, which is a term in falconry when the bird accidentally gets your bare hand while you're trying to handle them. Most of our ed birds also don't like being touched, so watch your fingers when trying to feel the weight of the bird.

However my coordinator did get hurt the other day; that was an adventure. We were working on a cooper's hawk's head (hawks are the worst as far as rehab goes) and the lady holding the bird down loosened on the foot just a little and he reaches up and struck my coordinator in her bare hand; got to her bone. It didn't make a scratch, luckily, just a puncture. It wasn't good; she flushed it out and walked around with a glove all day. But she's fine now.

I love all the raptors! But my favorites have to be the kestrels and golden eagles (which we don't have sadly). Harris hawks are also beautiful birds. My favorite specific birds are Baby, one of our kestrels, Miki, our Mississippi kite (who was my first bird I've gotten to handle! She's so sweet but we're worried about her, she's the oldest), and Orion, our goofy red tailed hawk.