Malta Falconry Centre

[anisah]

Often go to Malta and one of the places we like to visit is the Falconry Centre. It's a family run affair and all the birds are either rescued or come from other protected areas. The birds are really well cared for, and are teared very much as family pets.

This is Harry, obviously a Barn Owl He has a lot of freedom and sometimes disappears for a day or 2 at a time:

A Harris Hawk in a flying Display:

The vultures so not take part in the flying at the moment but you can get pretty close to them:

Full size images can all be viewed in the gallery.

 

[Kodiak Qc]

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Come on Phil, when I am shown an eagle I want to whole of it.
All three great takes but where are the eagle's claws!

 

[anisah]

Sorry - no eagle in the images. The second one is a Harris Hawk, and the third one a Rüppell's Griffon Vulture. The present vultures they have don't fly in display yet. In the past they had a lovely Hooded Vulture called Djanko who did fly and was eally graceful. Unfortunately he injured himself while flying and died. With the picture in this thread I was only aiming for a close up profile of the vulture, so, sorry, that is all you get. I'll try and sort out an image of Djanko and put it into my gallery.

 

[Kodiak Qc]

The second one is a Harris Hawk

Ok, a Harris Hawk but where are its claws?

 

[anisah]

That's a brilliant spot, well done, I had not noticed that at all. In this shot the claws on the nearside leg are visible, but those on the far leg are not visible, I have to assume due to the angle of the shot. Interestingly I have just checked the first and last images in the 3 shot sequence and they are completely the reverse. The claws on the far leg are visible but those on the nearer leg are not. Unable to explain this unless it is to do with the angle of the shot - weird!
There is now an image of the Hooded Vulture flying in my default gallery, see
https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/d...63685812-05249059b4f2360671698676d9a7764c.jpg