I got so burned by our local club the second years as an apprentice for saying some of these exact same things, I’m so happy to have watched this video. I agree with the not having a owl as a pet. But I’m almost certain in the right hands a person could be quit successful with a owl. One of my very first experiences with a raptor was a screech owl that had fallen from its hollow. I took it home to a run down apartment we lived in. We had tons of mice at that place. Over run to be exact. When it began to fly I would get him out of the enclosure and sit on the couch after everyone went to bed. And we would hunt the mice that would take control of the house at night. If he misses he would fly right back over and sit by me on the chair. 11 years old I was, one of the fondest life memories I have. Until the neighbor called game and fish and they came and took him.

My heart flutters every time Shadow hoots. Absolutely beautiful owl!

Great video mate...As Greek I would like to clear something up,if you allow me...owl was the symbol of Athena (goddess of wisdom) not because it is a clever bird ,wisdom has nothing to do with brightness even in people, but because it could see when other creatures couldn't , which is at night as the owl species in our country are hunting only at night time...cheers!

My father had an owl while I was growing up. I have always been in awe of falconry, but was never permitted to participate because it’s not seen as something acceptable for women to do in my culture. My husband participates In falconry now, and I hope one day to be allowed to ad well. Thank you for your videos!

Dude, you've gotta post some owl hunts/kills with Shadow for us!

I love Shadow. She's so cute ❤️. Thank you for explaining owls' faces and hearing.

I’m a first year apprentice,soaking up all your knowledge.

Shadow is so cute!! Owls are certainly extremely intelligent animals is you really get to know them and think in their "mode" and no dubt they are deadly hunters and I would LOVE to see video of you and shadow hunting together！！

Great video Ben! I discovered your channel recently and have been enjoying it ever since then.

👍🤚Ben excellent points you made. Beautiful Owl. I really enjoy watching your videos and am so glad you are educating all who watch. Thank you for all you do. Your friend in Florida ❤️Raptors. Take care stay warm it was 88 degrees in Florida today lol 💕

Shadow is gorgeous! I love how she was hooting. So cute! Also, you must have some amazing jack rabbit recipes!!

I raised a Great Horned owl when I was in high school. He was very affective. He caught a Mourning Dove on the wing his first outing. His next time out he accidentally caught a Meadowlark on the wing. Well, he did it on purpose, I did not. I did not have any trouble training him at all. If I ever have time for falconry again, I would have another Great Horned Owl in a heartbeat. I actually think they are very smart, and unlike the hawks I had, extremely affectionate.

When I first herd about falconry and owls were a possibility I really wanted one. When I learned more about them I kind of found that hawks are more my style. And I think owls are off limits to apprentices. I’d like to try a great horned owl someday tho.

Now I suddenly want to fly a pygmy owl one day. Those cute little fluff balls are deadly and I like it.

Shadow: She flies. She hoots. She catches boots.

thanks for the wisdom Ben, i’m a month away from becoming a general falconer and i’ve been scouting nests for a great horned and all i’ve heard from falconers is that they are awful falconry birds, this gives me hope haha

I've loved the art of falconry how am I just now finding this channel

Channel with spirit. Great amount of knowledge!!! Keep going !! Greetings from Polish falconers.

Awesome. Love the reference you had made with your son. I’ve worked with kids on the spectrum for years and have always used a similar mind set and behavior modification training. Temple Grandin!

Can I just say thank you for the comments about Autism? I'm autistic though I'm what most people would consider "high functioning." I'd just appear kind of shy at first and quirky/awkward once you get to know me. I am kind of the stereotype of "Autistic genius" so I'm very much what's considered "conventionally" intelligent and even excel in a lot of fields. But I still have my own ways of thinking and communicating with the world that others just don't understand. Like I'm shockingly good at making organisation systems from scratch or modifying something that already exists. But most people wouldn't consider that a sort of "intelligence" even though it's a skill a lot of people don't have. I know this is really off topic for the video, but it just always makes my day when I hear positivity like that instead of people demeaning those of us on the spectrum. Although to relate it to the video, one of my special interests at the moment is falconry which is why I'm here. I'm just learning so I can write about it (my main special interest), but I love learning about it in general!

Damn bro very well said I’m glad you have had your perspective shifted in that way.

Yea I was very surprised when I got into birding that they are a completely different category

Absolute brilliant video thanks. And wish you all the best with your son.

Thanks very informative, what a way to enjoy a bird other than just a pet.

I can relate to an owl....I've trained for years as a Classical musician, but people think I'm not very bright because I don't make a lot of money. I experience the world a lot using my ears, as well. Owls would make great musicians!

WoW! Learning so much. Great videos!

Happy Father's day to you when it arrives. Great for you and your son's harmonious growth.

Looks like a cat with feathers :) Soooo cute!

Nice video Ben!! Thanks

My baby nephew is also on the spectrum and nonverbal, but if u dont take the time to be with him and interact, u would miss out on how much he actually does know and understand. Very intelligent actually. It's awesome to gain that different perspective on intelligence and learning in regards to other people as well as animals. Too many people like to compare these types of things in perspective of their own experiences rather than staying open minded and open to different types of thinking and perspectives.

Your comment about the pygmy owl has seriously sparked an interest. They're diurnal and dietary habits seem to make them a good candidate for a falconry bird. What is the most significant factor when training a bird with no crop when it comes to weight management? When you "feed her up" could you do it 2x for like a morning and evening session? And get more hunting/training in?

Fantastic Ben

I am looking into getting a pygmy Owl for Sparrows mostly they r small thats where I wanna start *on owls* Since I am afraid of them I am trying to get over it. Had a Horrible accident with one when younger. I LOVE falconry with smaller hawks. So guess I be doing video's of how he/she dose also how I do too!.

Like the African Caracal (mid-sized cat with tufted ears) the feathers on top of the owl's head are used to judge wind direction and velocity to assist with hunting.

Hey I subbed, I loved the lecture. I do have a question, do your owls enjoy being petted?

Absolutely fascinating. A screech owl really? Man I hope you called it Lilith.

Boot. That's awesome. I love owls. I have one that hunts in my backyard. Regularly.

Listening to this while cleaning the house and every time the owl screeched i thought It was Ben doing it. Now i can't stop laughing.

I really want to get into falconry with an owl and hunt with them. This does indeed help quite a bit.

Very interesting.

Awesome video man.

2 years on, thank you 😊

I have joined other people when they said that owls are dumber, but I only did because of how much space their eyes take in their skull as opposed to their brains.

Portland is using falconers with Harris hawks for crow abatement in their downtown area at night. It seems to have worked that the Harris hawks scare the crows enough that it's not deemed a safe place. But an owl seems to be the better bird for the job since they do hunt at night and might be seen by the crows as a bigger threat. I wonder if anyone has used owls for that purpose.

I’ve just noticed that in this video you kind of move your head like a bird does I can tell your mind processes way faster than most, kinda neat alignment

I saw that meme too, hilarious!!

Hi Ben, Thanks for the really informative video. I am a 2nd year general Falconer and I am interested in learning more about owl falconry especially with the GHO. There isn't any information out there to learn about owl falconry nor do I know anyone who is an expert at it. As you mentioned in your video to find someone who has had success with it? I don't think I have being successful with this especially given most people I have talk to about this have actively discourage this. Will you be doing more videos on lessons and tips fro Owl falconry? Do only thing I know so far is if you want an owl capture as an eyass not more than 5 days old. Also are GHO good for squirrel hawking? Thanks so much. Love your videos.

I hunted with a northern hawkowl, and she was as gamey a bird as anything I've flown! She was a beast; bit of a rage-monster :P She'd have a go at anything- she was CONVINCED squirrels were completely reasonable, but she'd go for small birds too.

She is majestic

You should do more videos with red tailed hawks and owls!

Falconary,now that sounds very interesting,I wonder if that is also done in Fla. How can and when I find out more about it.tm

Hey ben, love this video! Im very interested in hunting with a GHO successfully, but id love to know a little more about hunting with the northern pygmy. I fly a kestrel right now so im familiar with hunting sparrows and small bird game. Once agin thank you for the great information!

I’m thinking of getting a australia barking owl for quail

How hard is it to train a wild caught owl compared to a hawk? I know owls don't have a crop so it seems like it would be harder to win them over with food.

Hey Ben, i moved to northern idaho to the university and im looking forward to studying raptors more. Wondering if you ever did the video about record keeping, i didnt see anything yet and i remember you sayi g it was a good idea. Anyway, thank you for the videos!!

Do you release the owls to the wild, at some point? If you hunt with them, will that be enough preparation for them to survive in the wild? As always, interesting video, very informative, a great graphic of the feathers versus bone structure, and, applause for your openness to all hunting birds.

Hey Ben I couldn’t find you anywhere I’m doing a imprint Eurasian eagle owl and wanted some of your insight with these guys

hey ...is it legal to use pygmy owls in USa...im in mi....im a master.. thinking of trying...is there a breeders you have used...thanks

I'm a falconry I grew up in stl.but manage to get out of the hood and train owls Falcons and my owl killer 7 rabbits the last night great video luh bro

😍

can you lamp with owls??

As an apprentice falconer i would love more instructional videos regarding falconry with owls. How is training them different? What does hunting with an owl entail, how is their care different. I would love more information if you could. I love the fur anklets video. Thanks!

Ben, have you are any falconers you know used any of the American Kites in falconry??

As you mentioned, owl falconry in the US isn't super popular and because of that there isn't much material to read on training and hunting. Can you recommend any good source? I do have one book by Jemima Parry Jones but if I recall correctly it wasn't written for US falconers, it felt sort of lacking for us on the other side of the pond.

eurasian eagle owls strength comparable to red tailed hawk ???

Can we get subtitles for what shadow is saying?

Would falconry hunting be allowed after dark with a pygmie owl while the owner uses infrared/Thermal?

Hey Ben, I have trained a few harries successfully and I am now about to get a great horned owl. I want to introduce it to hunting but as you can imagine, everyone here in Brazil says it is crazy and that owls are useless. I would really like to speak be with someone with real world experience on the topic. Would you be willing to help a fellow falconer?

Would you say that a barn owls are good with falconry? Barn owls astonish me so much, and I really would like the opportunity to train one, but I’m not trying too sure if it’s okay? Every time I try to do research on it, I never find anything, so any advice is great! (I haven’t started falconry yet, but I’m highly considering it!)

Only 3 mins into vid but how does your boy react to your falconry?

Sry to keep posting but it's crazy how harriers that are in the falcon/hawk fam use a similar technique as owls.

I have to admit, I always thought owls were a little spacey. Seems unfair, now, that I was judging them during the day.... if someone ran an IQ test on ME at 3 am I wouldn't do so hot either

Owlconry... wouldn't the term be Austringer?

You made the owl sound yourself. Shadow is cute though.

are owls closely related to Ospreys?

are you accepting apprentices yourself personally Ben?

Owls are not dumb..."Mine caught a boot once" ... duly noted.

Ben what State do you live in?

Do they hunt rabbits?

Uploed now please

The fact that humans can't acknowledge that every single living specimen on this planet should be treated the way they would want to be treated with respect and appreciation. If I wasn't a human, I would probably feel shame, embarrassed, and disappointed in myself. Which is the same feeling when you lose at Ball-in-a-cup.

Your point in intelligence was very wise coincidentally you're holding an owl lol

Falcon - ry Owl - ry Owl & falcon hybrid = Owlconry? Lol

Saying “owlconry” would be the same thing as calling an owl an “owlcon” as falconry is to falcon, thank you

you talk too much