Freedom the Bald Eagle's Training Journal - Entry #4

Here is our October update on Freedom’s training with a journal entry from Dan Hnilicka, Freedom's principal trainer.  (See past entries starting here.)

Part of our responsibility in the care and management of our winged education ambassadors is to keep their minds as healthy as their bodies.  One way to do this is to provide enrichment in how their food is presented.  This encourages natural behavior by engaging the birds’ minds, feet, and eyes, as well as making the activities of finding food and eating last longer.  The birds do need to be taught how to interact with their enrichment activities, however. 

In this video, Freedom was presented with his rat lunch, but it is inside a pumpkin, carved by our TRC volunteers!  Freedom recognizes his lunch, but not the object in which it is housed.  You can see how he is a little hesitant as he first approaches the pumpkin.  He is able to grab a piece of the rat, and then quickly moves to a safer location in his housing in which to eat it.  He is still curious, so he takes a moment to consider, but then approaches the pumpkin with more confidence.  He even eats one piece right there!

You can clearly see his process of learning how to interact with his enrichment in the video.  The photos also capture his “journey”. 

The last photo was taken the next morning.  Freedom did “disassemble” his pumpkin into tiny pieces! 

Note – the leather straps on Freedom’s ankles are part of his equipment, called bracelets and jesses.  As you can see, he has learned how to move very comfortably with them.  They are used with all of our education birds in their management. 

Let's Talk About Tail Molt!

Darner the American kestrel graciously agreed to be the model and teacher today for a lesson on tail molt!

Raptors have 12 tail feathers - six on each side.  When they molt, which is the process to replace these and other feathers due to wear, they will ideally molt symmetrically.  So - if you think of the tail as six feathers on the left side, and six feathers on the right, then the tail molt should happen with the 6's on the left and right molting at the same time.

You can see from the photo that this is true.  While some feathers were hidden a bit when Darner was on the glove after lunch and a spritz water bath, you can see very clearly that both of Darner's number 6's and number 4's are coming in nicely.