Your first season of falconry
Falconry is the one hobby where the legal process is harder than learning the skill. Here's what your first season actually looks like, from passing your state exam to your first free flight.
By Colin B. · Published June 15, 2026
Most people who discover falconry assume the hard part is training a bird of prey to hunt with you. It’s not. The hard part is clearing the legal and logistical barrier before you ever touch a bird. Once you understand what that process actually looks like, the path forward is straightforward (unusual, demanding, but straightforward).
Here’s what your first season really involves, in order.
Before you have a bird: the permit process
Falconry in the US is federally regulated under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. To legally keep a raptor, you need both a state falconry permit and a federal permit issued through the US Fish and Wildlife Service. As an apprentice, you also need a licensed general or master falconer willing to sponsor your application.
The process has four steps, roughly in this order:
1. Find a sponsor. Nothing else happens without one. Your sponsor must have held a general or master falconry license for at least two years, and they’ll sign your application, inspect your facility, and mentor you through your first two years. The North American Falconers Association maintains resources for finding mentors. Most experienced falconers are genuinely willing to help; the community is small and takes its own continuation seriously.
2. Pass the written exam. Most states require at least 80% on a written test covering raptor biology, falconry equipment, regulations, and husbandry. The Modern Apprentice (themodernapprentice.com) is the community’s standard study resource, with practice exams that closely mirror what states actually test. Give yourself 4-6 weeks of regular study. This is not a hard exam if you study; it is a guaranteed failure if you don’t.
3. Pass the facility inspection. Before you can receive your permit, your state will send an inspector (usually a conservation officer) to verify that your housing setup meets regulations. This means a mews (a weatherproof enclosure for the bird), a perch of the right type and size, appropriate tethering hardware, and a scale. Your sponsor should walk through the inspection requirements with you and check your setup before the official visit. Get this right the first time; re-inspections add months.
4. Apply and wait. Processing times vary by state. Some issue permits quickly; some have waiting lists. Budget 3-6 months from starting the process to holding a permit.
Trapping your first bird
Apprentices in the US may possess up to two birds, limited to two species: the American Kestrel or the Red-tailed Hawk. Most US apprentices start with a Red-tailed Hawk. They’re larger and slower than kestrels, more tolerant of beginner mistakes, and easier to read. Kestrels are fast learners but delicate; they’re a better second bird than a first.
You don’t buy a bird. You trap a wild passage hawk, which is a juvenile hawk from the most recent breeding season, caught during the fall migration. Passage hawks haven’t yet survived a full winter, which makes them more motivated to work with a food source (you) and more willing to be trained than adult birds.
The trapping season varies by state but generally runs August through November. Your sponsor will teach you to use a bal-chatri trap (a wire dome baited with mice, with monofilament nooses on top) or a dho-gaza net. Trapping requires its own permit in most states and is done on public land with your sponsor present for your first season.
The first time you hold a wild hawk on your glove, even tethered and hooded, is genuinely arresting. They are heavier than you expect, and more present than you expect.
Manning: the first three to six weeks
“Manning” is the falconry term for acclimating a wild bird to human presence, to the glove, and eventually to coming to you for food. It is slow, daily, and non-negotiable. A bird that isn’t properly manned won’t return to you reliably, and a bird that doesn’t return reliably is a bird you will lose.
The process looks like this:
Days 1-3: The bird is hooded most of the time, perched in your mews, getting used to sounds and smells without visual overload. You handle it briefly, offering food from the glove. It will bate (jump off the glove and hang upside down by the jesses) frequently. This is normal. You simply return it upright each time, calmly.
Days 4-14: You begin spending time near the unhooded bird, letting it eat from the glove, lengthening the contact gradually. You weigh it every morning and every evening. Flying weight management starts here: a bird above its flying weight won’t work for food; a bird below is at medical risk. Your sponsor helps you find the right weight.
Days 14-21 and beyond: You introduce the creance, a long light line that lets the bird fly short distances to the glove. You call it from one foot, then three feet, then ten feet, then across the yard. Each session extends the distance. The moment the bird flies consistently and eagerly to the glove from the full creance length, you’re approaching free flight.
The first free flight
The first time you remove the creance and call your bird free, you will be terrified. This is correct. The bird will not be.
Most hawks, properly manned and at flying weight, fly to the glove exactly as they’ve been trained. They don’t experience the absence of the creance as a change in the situation; they experience it as another recall to food. The training has been building this reflex for weeks.
What can go wrong: the bird is too heavy (flies to a tree and ignores you), the weather is wrong (thermal conditions on some days make birds reluctant to descend), or the location has too many distractions. Your sponsor should be present for the first free flight and will help you read whether the conditions are right.
When the bird lands on your glove from a true free flight, the feeling is hard to describe to someone who hasn’t experienced it. It’s not quite like anything else in any other hobby.
What falconry asks of you
Falconry is not a weekend hobby. Your bird needs to be weighed and checked every day. It needs to be flown regularly, even in cold or inconvenient weather. If you’re going to be away for a week, you need a trusted falconer (usually your sponsor) to care for it.
The community takes this seriously, and so should you. Raptors are wild animals kept under federal permit, not pets. If you stop meeting your commitment to the bird’s welfare, there are legal and ethical consequences, and the community will hold you to account.
What you get in return is unusual. Falconry is one of the few hobbies that genuinely changes how you see the natural world. You learn to read weather, migration patterns, prey behavior, and landscape. After a season of flying a hawk, you stop looking at fields and tree lines the way you used to. The hawk looks first.
What to do before trapping season
The best use of the months before you hold your permit is to prepare your facility, master your gear, and spend as much time as possible with your sponsor in the field. Watch them fly their bird. Watch the bird hunt. Ask questions.
By the time you trap your first passage hawk, you want the equipment to be second nature. You shouldn’t be figuring out how the swivel works when a wild Red-tailed Hawk is sitting on your glove for the first time.
Ready to sort out the gear? See our falconry gear guide for the gloves, perches, hoods, jesses, and telemetry systems every apprentice needs before their facility inspection.