Falconry is one of the most popular hobbies and sports among certain groups of people in the world. After all, falcon helmet birds are some of the most adept birds of prey in the world when it comes to hunting due to how amazing their eyes are and how fast they can go. But one of the things you might have wondered when it comes to falconry is that falconers often keep falcon eyes tied or covered. So, what is the purpose of keeping a falcon’s eyes tied?
Falconers keep the falcon’s eyes tied or covered using a hood because of how sensitive their eyes are and how falcons are quick to react to sudden movements and changes in light. Covering a falcon’s eyes allows it to stay calm and relaxed while it is on the falconer’s arm so that it won’t suddenly fly away.
Falcons are birds of prey that mainly use their sense of sight to hunt for their food. In a way, they are sight hunters that are quick to react to sudden movements such as when a small rodent moves quickly. This allows them to hunt effectively but it could be a hindrance to a falconer who wants falcon to land on his arm. As such, that is where falcon hoods come in.
How do falcon eyes work?
Among different groups of people in the world, falconry is a good pastime that allows people to take advantage of a falcon’s natural instincts and capabilities to hunt. In a way, these people train their falcons to hunt for prey effectively to point that falconry can even be called a sport. And, most of the time, the animals involved in falconry are small animals such as rabbits and squirrels, which usually form part of the falcon’s regular diet.
That said, if you have observed falconry or if you know someone who is into falconry, one of the things you might have noticed is how they usually keep their falcon’s eyes tied or covered using a hood whenever the falcon is not flying and is just merely sitting on the falconer’s arm. But, before we get to the point where we try to understand more about the falcon hood and why falcons are made to wear them, it is important for us to talk more about how falcon eyes work.
Falcons are birds of prey that use their sense of sight to hunt for their prey. They have very keen raptor eyes that are capable of seeing small and tiny details even from a distance. The falcon’s eyes also allow the bird to actually stay alert when it comes to sudden movements as their eyes are built to be so keen that they are able to easily keep track of moving targets.
The reason why falcon eyes are so keen is due to how large their eyes are. This allows their eyes to absorb more intermittent light have faster processing speeds that will allow the falcons to absorb the information that their eyes observe. Essentially, while humans can process information through their eyes at 60 to 75 Hz, falcons have processing speeds of up to 129 Hz. As such, it allows their eyes to work as efficiently and as effectively as needed when they are hunting their prey.
The fact that a falcon’s eyes are so keen and effective allows it to dominate as a hunter. That’s because this allows the bird to constantly be on high alert and aware of any opportunity it can get when it hunts. Any small yet sudden movement that a rabbit makes can easily be captured by a falcon’s keen eyes even though such details may be difficult for human eyes to process. This allows them to be effective hunters and great for sports such as falconry.
Why do people keep falcon eyes tied?
Now that you know more about how a falcon’s eyes work and how keen and effective it is at capturing tiny details and allowing the falcon to quickly process such information and details, you should know that this can be both an advantage and a disadvantage to falconers. It is an advantage because keener falcon eyes allow the falcon to become more effective in falconry. However, the falcon’s eyes can be a disadvantage because of how some falcons are so sensitive to light and sudden movements that they can be so challenging for some falconers to handle.
This is where the falcon hood comes in. Falconers keep falcon eyes tied or covered simply because of how they want to keep the falcons from reacting to their environment and to whatever their eyes see.
So, by keeping the falcon’s eyes covered using a hood, falconers are able to allow the falcons to stay calmly perched on their arms because there is nothing that will stimulate the falcon to suddenly move and dart towards its prospective prey. For example, if you are carrying the falcon and are not asking it to hunt, it might still fly away at the sight of a moving rabbit that may not be visible to you but is very much clear to the falcon’s eyes.
As such, keeping the falcon’s eyes covered using a hood will allow the falconer to keep the bird calm so that it won’t react right away to any sudden movements or changes in the light. This also allows the falconer to properly train the falcon as it can be used for positive reinforcement such as when the falconer is training the falcon to know when and when not to hunt.
But keep in mind that a well-trained falcon seldom needs a falcon hood because of how it has been trained to know when it is the right time for it to hunt. Of course, a falcon can be trained well by the use of a falcon hood.
