Kestrel Posted September 5, 2016 Report Share Posted September 5, 2016 I've been mainly putting this in the Random Stuff thread but heck, I'll be posting it here now to keep it all in one place. For those of you who don't know, I now volunteer at a bird of prey rehab/sanctuary. If you have any questions for me please don't hesitate to ask. I help out mostly in rehab, the area where wild birds are brought in to be treated. I am training in education, which consists of our birds who can never be released into the wild. We sit with them, hold them, and train them to fly and return to our gloves. So... the best part, our education birds! These are only a few of our ed birds. This is Zeus, one of our two red tailed hawks. He is our biggest bird. He was electrocuted and has a wing issue, which is why he's with us permanently. He's a sweet bird, even if he does tend to puncture the strongest gloves with those sharp talons of his. Spoiler This is Rusty, one of our three Eastern screech owls. He's a brown morph form. Spoiler This is Orion, our other red tail. He's a goofy bird; he has a swing perch in his mew and he loves to swing on it. Spoiler This is Xena, our peregrine. She's an old bird, but still very beautiful. She's a moody bird, though. She's sassy. Spoiler she needs a napkin. And finally, our cutest education birds, in my opinion, our american kestrels! Spoiler Puff vs No puff The males have the gray, the females do not. My first time holding a bird was actually with one of our kestrels, a male everyone calls Baby (the public gets to name our birds). I got to hold and feed him under the supervision of the education director. He ended up getting away once; I got too comfortable and let go of his jesses. I wasn't about to let that happen again, so I clenched my fist really badly and ended up cramping my hand like no tomorrow. But it was fun; he seemed to enjoy it because he puffed up really big and rested on one foot, which is a sign of comfort in kestrels. I've seen so much awesome stuff so far, and I have learned a lot about these great birds. I wish to be a falconer some day so this is a great opportunity for me to learn about the back end of bird care. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brightness Enna Posted September 5, 2016 Report Share Posted September 5, 2016 this is awesome. I don't know what else to say about it! So I'm just gonna follow this thread and enjoy the awesomeness as it comes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orlion Blight Posted September 6, 2016 Report Share Posted September 6, 2016 Kestrels seem considerably small! Is that about their average size? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kestrel Posted September 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2016 3 hours ago, Orlion Determined said: Kestrels seem considerably small! Is that about their average size? They are! They're only about the size of your fist and weigh only about 100 grams (4 ounces!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird Posted September 6, 2016 Report Share Posted September 6, 2016 America's smallest falcon! They're storming adorable. <3 I am a big birdwatcher, so this thread makes me very happy. Have you ever heard an Eastern screech-owl do its whinny call? Totally sounds like a horse neighing. This page has some recordings of the owl calls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistrunner Posted September 6, 2016 Report Share Posted September 6, 2016 Owls are amazing. Once there was an owl on the stop sign right next to our house. When it eventually flew away, it was unnerving how silent it was. I always heard about how owls make nearly no sound in flight, but it never really sunk in until I heard the silence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird Posted September 6, 2016 Report Share Posted September 6, 2016 4 minutes ago, Mistrunner said: Owls are amazing. Once there was an owl on the stop sign right next to our house. When it eventually flew away, it was unnerving how silent it was. I always heard about how owls make nearly no sound in flight, but it never really sunk in until I heard the silence. Can confirm. I went to an owl banding once where these ornithologists set up nets out in the woods at night to catch Northern Saw-whet owls so they could put little numbered metal bands on their ankles to track them for research purposes. They eventually caught one and took all his vitals--weight, age, how much fat he'd stored, etc. We had a bag of Hershey's chocolate kisses to snack on, so after they weighed him we piled kisses on the scale to see how many equaled the weight of the owl, and it was only 17 chocolate kisses! Seriously, these owls are like the size of a 12-oz soda can. Here's a photo of one in the hand for scale: Spoiler Anyway, once they were done getting down all the little guy's information and fitting him with a band, we all went outside to release him, and they let my mom do it. She set him on her bare arm and he was so relaxed that he almost fell off before he flapped once and regained his balance. It was so incredible; even though owls' talons are so unbelievably sharp, like kitten claws, he didn't scratch my mom a bit because his perch on her bare arm was all balance and no grip. He just sat there looking around at us for a few minutes until one of the banders said, "Give him a lift." So my mom made sort of a slow, exaggerated "throwing" motion with her arm up into the air, and he lifted off--completely silent even though we were standing right there like 2 feet away. The combination of his utter silence and his pale feathers against the blackness of the night made him look like a ghost as he circled once and then flew off. Here's an awesome video showing the difference between the noise a pigeon, a Peregrine falcon, and a barn owl make in flight: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkness Ascendant Posted September 6, 2016 Report Share Posted September 6, 2016 Orion is cute Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mestiv Posted September 6, 2016 Report Share Posted September 6, 2016 I like Rusty the most Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soyperson Posted September 6, 2016 Report Share Posted September 6, 2016 Dude birds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkness Ascendant Posted September 6, 2016 Report Share Posted September 6, 2016 5 hours ago, Sunbird said: Can confirm. I went to an owl banding once where these ornithologists set up nets out in the woods at night to catch Northern Saw-whet owls so they could put little numbered metal bands on their ankles to track them for research purposes. They eventually caught one and took all his vitals--weight, age, how much fat he'd stored, etc. We had a bag of Hershey's chocolate kisses to snack on, so after they weighed him we piled kisses on the scale to see how many equaled the weight of the owl, and it was only 17 chocolate kisses! Seriously, these owls are like the size of a 12-oz soda can. Here's a photo of one in the hand for scale: Reveal hidden contents Anyway, once they were done getting down all the little guy's information and fitting him with a band, we all went outside to release him, and they let my mom do it. She set him on her bare arm and he was so relaxed that he almost fell off before he flapped once and regained his balance. It was so incredible; even though owls' talons are so unbelievably sharp, like kitten claws, he didn't scratch my mom a bit because his perch on her bare arm was all balance and no grip. He just sat there looking around at us for a few minutes until one of the banders said, "Give him a lift." So my mom made sort of a slow, exaggerated "throwing" motion with her arm up into the air, and he lifted off--completely silent even though we were standing right there like 2 feet away. The combination of his utter silence and his pale feathers against the blackness of the night made him look like a ghost as he circled once and then flew off. Here's an awesome video showing the difference between the noise a pigeon, a Peregrine falcon, and a barn owl make in flight: That some interesting stuff "That bloody bird's a menace!" —Ron Weasley FATHER NO! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kestrel Posted September 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2016 Esos! I love our screech owls! Yep, ours do make that noise. But frankly, whoever named screech owls has never heard a barn owl. Our barn owl, Willie, loves to nap, and if you wake her, she does the annoyed hissing scream barn owls do. Its terrifying. Our rehab birds do it more; they also hunch over and make themselves all leg no bird. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird Posted September 7, 2016 Report Share Posted September 7, 2016 Yup, barn owls scream bloody murder, although I've only heard them do it in recordings. Just imagine hearing that bloodcurdling shriek when you're out alone in the middle of the night. That'll give you a good scare! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kestrel Posted September 7, 2016 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2016 17 hours ago, Sunbird said: Yup, barn owls scream bloody murder, although I've only heard them do it in recordings. Just imagine hearing that bloodcurdling shriek when you're out alone in the middle of the night. That'll give you a good scare! Being in a flight cage with them is bad enough, lol. I've been swooped at a few times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkness Ascendant Posted September 8, 2016 Report Share Posted September 8, 2016 13 hours ago, Kestrel said: Being in a flight cage with them is bad enough, lol. I've been swooped at a few times. ....swooped at? *shudders* *flashback to time when he was running across school oval, with two magpies swooping at him* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird Posted September 8, 2016 Report Share Posted September 8, 2016 My mom has been dive bombed by an overprotective mother wren before, and actually got hit in the head. But the bird is like five inches long and weighs less than an ounce, so it's not like she was in any danger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mestiv Posted September 9, 2016 Report Share Posted September 9, 2016 8 hours ago, Sunbird said: My mom has been dive bombed (...) Oh my, for a moment I forgot what thread I'm in and I thought your mother was a victim of some kind of terrorist attack 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird Posted September 10, 2016 Report Share Posted September 10, 2016 20 hours ago, Mestiv said: Oh my, for a moment I forgot what thread I'm in and I thought your mother was a victim of some kind of terrorist attack Thank heavens that's not the case! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird Posted September 11, 2016 Report Share Posted September 11, 2016 Ok so I know double posting is frowned upon, but... I saw this photo in a bird group on Facebook and had to share: Snowy egret runway model knows she's FABULOUS. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kestrel Posted October 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2016 I raise you the secretary bird. Also called the marching eagle. We now have a peregrine falcon in our rehab, which is rare and awesome! We'll have to release him in a week if we want him to hit his migration, however. I've also gotten to hold a cooper's hawk recently. What a nutty bird. Also, kestrels are the most fun to have sit on your fist. They are so curious. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird Posted October 22, 2016 Report Share Posted October 22, 2016 Hehe. Speaking of Secretary Birds, there's a funny video you should see. The bird is totally puzzled. XD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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