The Tiercel Harris:

Tips for success with the world's most versatile bird of prey

By Troy Moritz

October 2001

Of all the species of raptors I have flown, the tiercel Harris is by far the most versatile hunter. The purpose of this article is to highlight my training techniques for flying this formidable raptor. My own tiercels have caught quite a variety of quarry; many falconers catch hares and jackrabbits - intentionally - with their tiercels.

Training and flying an exceptional tiercel Harris is an art, but it can be made into a streamline process with a few basic training strategies. With the right approach, you will find it possible to catch most every imaginable quarry with the raptor. People who fly their tiercels several times a week can catch hundreds of head of game and, more importantly, see superior quality of flight (albeit much less than the birds would probably catch in the wild).

I have created some rules and guidelines for training the tiercel Harris. These rough guidelines are based upon my personal flight experiences over the past ten years on a number of different candidates. To qualify what I write, all of my tiercels took triple digits of game but were still tame enough to be poked at by a group of school children; they actually crave the attention!

The precursor to any effort to fly a falconry bird is to ensure that you have a bird that is a good candidate for training. The scope and context of this article will focus on specifically the chamber raised Harris hawk. You should obtain a Harris that is no younger than 14 weeks old. Ideally, the raptor will be 4 months old when you receive it. Beware, most breeders are quite anxious to get rid of hard penned birds, and most of them will attempt to coerce you into taking your bird between 7-12 weeks. DO NOT SUCCUMB to their pressures! If you must pay an additional $50 because of the extra food that the raptor will eat in the chamber so be it; it is worth every penny. Also, be sure that you are ready to start flying the bird upon receipt, otherwise don't get the bird. The bird must be killing prey within a very short length of time. Any idle time it spends with you will foster irrevocable bad habits.

Author with "Tuffy" and an unlucky Canada Goose

Once I have acquired the bird I follow these steps:

First…Man the bird excessively from the moment it is received. Grab the birds’ chest to help it recover from bates; they usually hang after bating for approximately the first three days. This is an excellent time for your bird to get acclimated to being touched. Put your hand over the bird's head and feet constantly, gently push the bird down on the fist, grab its feet, etc. The goal is utter tameness and elimination of any inherent fear that the raptor may have towards its new family and surroundings. The first few days with your Harris prove to be the most critical. I have found that the bird is about eighty percent as tame as he will ever become in the first week in the falconer's hands. I have also noticed that a tiercel Harris exposed to thorough manning of every type imaginable in the first few days will neither foot nor bite the falconer…ever. On the opposite side, those falconers who do not attempt to overwhelm the bird (which is honestly not possible) are condemned to deal with a footy, aggressive bird that has neither fear nor respect for the falconer.

Moral of the Story: I cannot emphasize enough that excessive handling - sixteen hours a day if possible - for the first seventy-two hours is invaluable to the tameness, friendliness, and long-term trust between yourself and your tiercel Harris.

"Jack" returning to the T perch after an unsuccessful flight on a sparrow

Second…Feeding. The single worst thing one can do is over-train their Harris with a food association. The goal is to get the bird in the field within TEN days of its receipt. I have done it in as little as five, but a week is more typically par for the course. The faster the bird gets into the field, the less bad eyass habits you will create. An untrained chamber raised Harris that is fed on the fist for two to three weeks before catching game is irrevocably damaged. The Harris creates a food association in less than three days; thus, I do not create that bond until 3 days before hunting. If you must feed the bird, simply place a few tidbits on their perch and allow them to "discover" the food on their own just as you would for a young eyass. My regimen seems to find them unwilling to eat until Day Three, although this is really dependent on how fat the breeder kept him before shipping. They eat a few tidbits on that third day, and then after a few bites they typically refuse any more. I offer them a hop (or even a stretch) for a tidbit on Days Four and/or Five. On Day Six - or sooner - their weight and interests should be piqued, and they will fly to the fist inside. On the morning of Day Seven, I fly the tiercel to the fist again for a tidbit; that evening, I repeat the process. The morning of Day Eight, they are flown on a creance outside. If it looks good - I go hunting! The above scenario is exactly how it happened with my last three birds. After hawking has begun, all feeding is done on the fist. There is a paradigm shift from avoiding food associations (the hand-outs phase) and from later training where you enforce the point that the glove is the only place to eat (the hunting phase). The point of feeding the bird its kills on the fist develops the following behaviors: it catches quarry and eats it on the fist, or is traded to some other reward on the falconer's fist. Contrary to popular belief, this method does not cause bad habits or possessiveness; rather, it ensures that the bird will not carry small quarry by encouraging the idea that the fist is the only place where it eats. My two current Harris' let the quarry go when they step up to the fist for their food. This method makes multiple catches a breeze!

Sweating through July 2001... Author and "Jack", seconds before he caught his 30th sparrow

Moral of the Story: Essential to success in the field: don't feed your bird too many times in training! Keep focused on getting into the field ASAP to curb aggression, screaming, and other bad habits. Once hawking, feed only on the fist and never let the bird eat on the ground. This will ensure that the bird will not become possessive and carry small quarry.

Third…Entering and Baggies. Entering and Baggies are a simple matter. The first and only rule most falconer's need in the use of baggies is don’t. To phrase it another way - don’t! I marred my first Harris, as I’m sure others have, by offering baggies. To substantiate my point, due to the use of baggies and the slug like behavior it encourages, the bird took seven head of game in the first year; Year Two, the bird took one hundred twenty five. The type of quarry was vastly diverse, and no baggies were used at all that year. I decided to confer with someone else on this matter, so I spoke with Tom Coulson, arguably one of the world's foremost experts on practical Harris hawking. His knowledge has been obtained after flying over one hundred chamber raised Harris hawks. His reply to me was thus: "Once, about 15 years ago, I may have had a tiercel that wouldn't chase rabbits. If I remember correctly I may have given him a baggie." What does that mean? One in every hundred birds might need a baggie; that means 99% don't. The tiercel Harris is driven by confidence, not familiarity to a type of quarry. The Harris that chases a goose or a jackrabbit is not doing it because of baggies; he is confident to tackle different species because he has successfully caught countless rabbits and little birds. His ego is telling him he can catch anything because the experiences you have given the bird on wild slips have enforced this along the way. The Harris, at weight, will chase and catch its primary quarries with no baggies drawing on basic instincts and proper weight control alone.

Moral of the Story: Don't use baggies for entering the bird to its primary quarry, rabbits and small birds. Just be sure to catch lots of something readily available in your area - whichever that may be. Successes early and often are critical to the confidence and mental development of your bird. Make sure that these experiences are created on wild quarry; the bird is incredibly intelligent and certainly knows that baggies aren't really wild quarry.

My first Harris "Gus" many years ago on a 10 crow weekend

Fourth…Entering. Entering is simple. If you are entering the bird in the summer, there are hundreds of dickie birds to be caught. Walk into a field - even with heavy cover - and you will succeed in catching quarry when a foolish young sparrow attempts to outfly the raptor. When the Harris is properly conditioned, he is far faster than anyone gives credit, and you will be amazed at what he can accomplish. When flying sparrows and starlings, I have flushed swift moving birds many times by accident and had them brought to bag after tail chases that covered hundreds of feet. A well-trained Harris will incinerate most summer dickie birds, both on the rise and in extremely long tail chases. You might note that this type of hawking is an excellent primer for quail and upland game, which presents itself later in the season.

Moral of the Story: Catch something ASAP and keep doing it. Game in the bag, even if a humble species, will protect you from the potential vices the birds can get. Don't wait to fly an inexperienced bird on savvy quarry in the fall. Catch young, dumb quarry in the summer with an equally inept raptor. Thus the quarry and the raptor grow in their experience level in tandem, and the quality of the flights only get better as the season unfolds!