![]() Want to experience a Harris hawk's smart moves yourself? You can learn more about the Harris hawk and watch them flying by doing a hawking experience with Steve. With their friendly, curious manner and amazing ability to manoeuvre in tight spaces, Harris hawks are an ideal bird for wedding falconry and ring deliveries and Murray has even been involved in an engagement here at our base in Hammer Inn, near Crail in the East Neuk of Fife! Your very own Hawking Experience Harrises also like puzzles and attention and Steve has found them engaging and interesting birds to train and to fly. They therefore enjoy company! That it certainly not the case for most birds or prey, which tend to be solitary and aggressive to other birds, even of their own kind. Harris hawks co-ordinate as a group to drive their prey into a trap and to do this they require both intelligence and co-dependency. What kind of nature do Harris hawks have? It’s this capability that makes a Harris hawk the bird of choice for Wimbledon’s bird-scaring work: Rufus the hawk has kept the tennis courts free of pigeons for more than 15 years now! The Harris’s particular hunting style uses their long legs and loose-feathered, highly manoeuvrable wings to deliver a quick burst of energy and fast, jinking flight and they make efficient and effect ‘still hunters’ – diving into cover from a standing start. Operating as a team, a family of Harris hawks works together to flush out prey from low-growing scrub and dense bushes, often driving it into the path of a waiting hawk. In the wild, Harris hawks are to be found in the southern USA, Central and South America, where they adapt to terrain as varied as desert, mangrove and forest. Harris hawks choose to hunt in family groups of 2-7, typically led by the dominant female. ![]() Their key weapons for hunting are their long legs, strong feet with big talons, and a sharp hooked beak. Their prey is mostly small mammals (such as rabbits and squirrels) but they’ll also take reptiles and other birds. Harris hawks can live for around 25 to 30 years in captivity but, in the wild, 10 or 11 years might be more likely. What do Harris hawks eat and how long do they live? It is the only bird of prey that routinely lives and hunts in social groups – other birds of prey are usually aggressively solitary, particularly when they hunt. ![]() ![]() Given Edward Harris’s support and collaboration for Audubon, it seems entirely fitting that Audubon gave this particular hawk Harris’s name, as the Harris hawk’s unique quality is its co-operative and social nature. ![]()
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