Queen

Queen came to us as a young Harris Hawk who came to us in the fall of 2009 from a falconer in the Northwest U.S. She arrived at Wildworks as a strong and healthy young bird and looked to be a perfect candidate for traveling and working in outreach educational wildlife programs. Harris Hawks are a social species and they bond to other animals and to the people who work with them. In nature they practice cooperative hunting with family members and their mates and this is one reason why these hawks are one of the most popular raptors used in the sport of falconry.

Queen was hatched in a protected environment and remained in her family group with no human handling or training prior to her arrival at our facility. When we first met her she was sporting a falconer’s hood and we began her training immediately. She was first taught to wear leashes and to be held calmly, perched upright, on a gloved fist. This was quite easily accomplished using food as reinforcement and now Queen is flying from a perch to a handler wearing a strong leather glove.