While I agree with your observations most of time, and I have watched a lot of your videos (great content by the way!), there are few things I don't agree with you here. First thing is your claim that the peregrines are specialist, although we can look at it that way if we take in to account that they hunt almost exclusively birds. But if we ignore that, the fact that the peregrines are the most wide spread BOP is the strongest counter argument to your claim. Specialist are usually limited to certain terrain/area and certain type of prey, and they mostly have limited number of hunting methods/techniques like Taita falcons or Cheetah. On the other hand, peregrines use incredibly broad spectrum of hunting techniques in a wild (pursuit flights, tail chase, low level ambush attacks, ringing up, direct climb, perch hunts, waiting on/stooping, shepherding etc.) and you can teach them to hunt similarly in captivity. Because of that level of physical capabilities peregrines are able to occupy almost entire planet, and when we look at the Tundrius or Calidus peregrine, they can hunt in cold tundra, and also in hot Africa and in the mountains of south America, thousands of miles from their breeding grounds with totally different prey diversity! For that reason i think that the peregrine is opportunist, more like leopard, and lees like cheetah. And if we ignore the fact that saker falcon is also good at hunting fur, its morphology doesn't allow it to occupy such a wide space as peregrine. Also, on average peregrine is faster in level flight, has better climb rate, it is faster in a dive and also has incredible stamina. I have watched Arabs hunting Houbara with both, the Mongolian/Altai Saker and the Peregrine at the same time, and Peregrine simply outflies the Saker falcon in every possible way. I have also seen peregrines fighting with Houbara on the ground, and going after Houbara of the ground just as any Saker would do. But I have never seen Arabs hunting small houbara (tetrax tetrax) on regular basis with the saker. They simply don't have the speed and climb rate of the peregrine for such a demanding prey. The falcon of choice for the small houbara is the peregrine and gyr x peregrine, and even pure gyrfalcons have trouble catching them on regular basis, so they are rarely used. I have personally flown peregrines of the fist and from waiting on in the same day. For example, when the prey managed to dodge the diving peregrine and went for the cover, my peregrine male would go after it in the cover, and if it can't find it, i would pick him up and would go through the brush goshawk style with the peregrine on the fist. When the prey is reflushed the male would go of the fist like a dart and would catch the prey in the tail chase. I basically like to hunt with the falcons the way they would hunt in the nature, and for most of the time there is no man or a dog that would flush the prey beneath them, so the peregrines have to employ different hunting techniques in order to survive, and their physical abilities allow them to do so! Just my two cents 😉

@krisfarrar3896

Ай бұрын

An interesting read. Could you please explain what the benefits of crossing both birds together would be. Pere x sakers seem to be valued in the UK for pursuit crow hawking. In your opinion could this be true or would one would be better to just fly a pure peregrine? TIA.

@Semendrija123

Ай бұрын

@@krisfarrar3896 Thanks! To be honest, I don't like hybrids, I'm more for the pure falcons but I can understand the logic behind the hybrid breeding. I haven't flown Pere x Saker, but I have flown Gyr x Pere x Saker and they are great hunters with power, speed and aggression, but in my opinion they are no match for the pure peregrine, especially male peregrine regarding the flight style. They are efficient, but the way peregrine moves in the air is just not possible for bigger hybrids, especially in a dive and in the turns. My colleague falconer is tame hacking peregrines and gyr x peregrines, and in his opinion peregrine is superior hunter. Gyr x peregrines are considered to be the fastest level fliers, but his peregrine was able to at least match the speed of the Gyr x Pere, and it had faster climb rate, it was faster in a dive, and it had smaller turn radius while tail-chasing. Since all birds are flying under identical conditions in the wild, we can exclude the falconer from the equation when assessing the performance of the birds. His peregrine was for example able to catch about two times more wood pigeons than his Gyr x Pere hybrid, and the only advantage in his opinion hybrid has is its weight and capability to be more efficient fighting larger prey on the ground, or when hitting larger prey in the air. There is a thing called hybrid vigor, and hybrids do have that extra aggression, but from my experience you can make even a male peregrine going after literally everything that you flush. My males have no problem killing cock pheasants both, in the air, and on the ground that are more than three times heavier. They can also catch and kill crows with ease, and with the last year male I had few instances where he would get in to the fight with two times bigger female buzzards on the ground in attempt to defend the catch. He and his brother (that is one year older) have attacked hares of the fist in their first year, even if they never saw the hare, and were never trained to do so. Of course, I didn't encourage that behavior since I don't have intention letting the hare hurt or even kill the peregrine male, but that depicts the level of aggression even the male peregrines can have. Older of the males I have mentioned was even attacking buzzards and other birds of prey in the air, and few times he caught the buzzard mid air and tried to bring it to the ground. In essence, if you put the peregrine in to any other falcon you will enhance that falcon, so I don't have a doubt that on the average Pere x Saker would be better than pure Saker, but I don't think that on average it would be better than pure peregrine. Peregrine has the feathers that are more resistant to moisture (they can hunt even in areas with extreme level of moisture and rain), has more muscle mass relative to its size/wing surface, it has lower drag coefficient, has the size and power needed for any type of prey Saker would also hunt, so I don't see why would I put the Saker in to the peregrine, and to some degree degrade its performance. Saker is very good for the extreme environments like the desert, where Arabs hunt Houbara. There is less moisture in the air, the hotter air has less density which is not that good for the birds with high wing loading like the Gyr and Peregrine, but the Saker with its lower wing loading can exert less effort for almost the same level of performance, and its flexible feathers are much more brake resistant when fighting huge prey like Houbara. Under same conditions most peregrines will have heavily damaged feathers, and would spend much more energy for the same task. Bottom line, if you can take only one falcon species for what ever type of hunting you are after, I would take the peregrine every day of the week! But that is just me 😉

@krisfarrar3896

Ай бұрын

Thanks for the detailed and clearly knowledgeable answer. Certainly some food for thought. I have only flown hawks so this year will be my 1st falcon. I have a lot to think about and more to learn. Thanks and Happy hunting.

@Semendrija123

Ай бұрын

@@krisfarrar3896 You are welcome, and I wish you all the luck with your first falcon!

I love your exuberance and fun presentation of your knowlege!❤🎉 Great discussion of today's subject!! Thank you so very much!!

The “little bbq’d sparrow” comment made me chuckle for some reason 😂

a falconry video on shikra would be awsome

@lamaspacos

Ай бұрын

Shikra or brevipes vs A. nisus or striatus

Super agree about Gyrs and their ilk being smarter. I've started manning a gyr in preperation to start doing displays with her and I've been stroking her with a feather to get her used to touch. She's the first bird to lean up and ignore the feather to bite my hand! Blew my mind when she did that haha

Thank you for the weekly videos Ben. I have pretty much run out of your back-catalogue. But am starting it again, as there is always something have missed/forgotten. Would you consider doing a video about the different types of peregrine falcons? I would love more information on the Barbary falcon. It could be a nice long video!

@benwoodrufffalconry

Ай бұрын

Yes indeed. I have been piecing one together for about a year now, but haven't finished it mostly because of needing photos of video clips of specific subspecies to include it all. I have a similar video with the same problems about Lanner subspecies. But eventually I will get the peregrine video done.

@Senna-qq4ed

Ай бұрын

@@benwoodrufffalconry That's fantastic news, thank you, will look forward to it.

Hey Ben, how about a video on Ornate Hawk Eagles or Hawk eagles in general?

I enjoy the comparison videos quite a bit since it gives me a framework to categorize the different species in my head. Any future videos of this type would be much appreciated :)

Thank you. I've been doing more research into sakers lately. I've gone through most of your videos and I couldn't find one about sakers specifically unless you're comparing them to other birds like prairies or just mentioning them in gyr videos. I could be wrong though maybe I just need to watch more of your videos. Maybe there's more saker info in the podcasts.

@benwoodrufffalconry

Ай бұрын

Sakers are incredible. Honestly the main reason I haven't done more videos on them is a lack of footage. back when I flew sakers, I almost never filmed them. And I hate making videos where it is just me droning on and on. This is honestly what stops me from making a lot of specific videos.

If I remember correctly either Frank Beebe or Hal Webster mentioned in North American Falconry and Hunting Hawks that they were nearly knocked out by a Saker when struck in the head.

Great stuff Ben! Could you do a video on training falcons not to carry. Especially Aplomados.

@benwoodrufffalconry

Ай бұрын

I can do a video that is falcon-specific, but here is a video of what I call the spiral and stomp technique that I do will all my birds to help deter carrying. It works very well. kzread.info/dash/bejne/f5ei18Gke9SZodY.htmlsi=Ll9Hi9iQs6PN5MWA

@petemartin3538

Ай бұрын

Thanks Ben. I will try that.

Hey Ben! Again a great vidéo! Ty for the time u take for give us this nice vidéos regulary. 😊 I realise u didn’t introduce ur birds anytimes. How many raptors got u? I know u don’t like to show ur private life but can u discretly show us ur raptors name by name? Ty again for ur work, i follow u from France and i regret that we don’t have somes quality vidéos like yours in French.

Hey Ben, have you done a video on vocalization? How to manage it, when/why it happens for different species, best practices, do's and donts, etc? You have a lot of experience with many different falconry birds. Would be great to get your input.

@benwoodrufffalconry

Ай бұрын

I did this one a couple years ago. Haven’t watched it for a bit. Let me know if this covers things well enough: kzread.info/dash/bejne/ZHamsMinkay0pM4.htmlsi=3C498G82_QKmMcOc

@Conan_Obrien

Ай бұрын

@@benwoodrufffalconry That was excellent. Thank you for the link and the knowledge!

What about Lanner falcons?

all the birds! all of them!

I live in Las Vegas and want to get into falconry. Where should I start?

Hey Ben, Great Video as alwyas. Wondering what would be your ideal choice for hunting sandhill crane and artic swan ? Is a gyr too small for this ?

@lla7131

Ай бұрын

Gyrs were used in medieval times to hunt crane, heron, swan and kites. Don't know if anyone still does.

Hey Ben! So i know you have a macaw in the house. Do you ever have raptors inside aswell ? I ask because im about to enter mentorship and have a conure and some budgies.. outdoor diseases virus etc is my concern.. plan on washing up and clothing change going between there separate spaces and mew.. should i have any concerns on this or am i over thinking it. Thanks

Please do another video of gy/peregrine hybrids but the difference between the sexes if possible

I live by a big canal that has ducks and geese. Every once in a while I will see a bald eagle flying around. I know that’s not much to go off of but from that do you think it would be ok to fly a peregrine?

shikra vs eurasiansparrowhawk

Did someone ask for accipiters? *Hype*

@dhanushchandranakkalakunta151

Ай бұрын

I asked for shikra because they are quite underrated birds and except in pakisthan and some parts of SE Asia they are not known a lot

@shae899

Ай бұрын

@@dhanushchandranakkalakunta151 I know less about the besra but I don't know if it has a falconry history either is fine with me

True middle eastern Sakers? You mean Sakers imported from captive breeding projects all over Europe or are you talking about natural occuring Saker x Gyr hybrids often called Altai falcons? That are wild caught and imported into the middle east. Mean spirited Sakers? Hardly, they are super easy going once manned. You have flown too many Lanners if you think Sakers are hard work.

As an old falconer friend once said, when I asked about the sakers after flying peregrines.... " Sakers? Large falcon with a small engine " . :)

@lamaspacos

Ай бұрын

Adult saker falcons and all ages of goshawks: my preferred raptors. They are fast and capable of agile chasing, besides the plumage beauty, although, for me the eurasian goshawks with 4-6 years are inferior in this aspect.

@goshawkrst

Ай бұрын

@@lamaspacos just put an gps on and compare them to any regular peregrine... not that fast. they like to soar a lot, eat beatels, reptiles and so on. Nice birds but not even close when compare to the almighty peregrine !