Elite Falconry is NOT a dedicated breeding facility.

However, we do run a small breeding and conservation project and within the facility.

Our aim is to learn and understand why some species are ‘notoriously hard to breed’. Through painstaking observance through CCTV, we watch the behaviour and activity of birds, try to understand it, and make alterations to accommodation, nest orientation, feeding frequency or food type etc etc.

All of the birds we breed (with the exception of owls) are bred in full daylight seclusion aviaries. This means the large aviary has four solid walls offering complete privacy to the birds inside. Furthermore, this also ensures that any young produced are entirely unaffected by human contact. As adults, we can then be sure they will fly, hunt, and breed entirely naturally. The aviaries also have a mesh roof. Natural levels of daylight, sunshine and rain are encountered, and shelter is available under the 1/3 of the aviary roof  (including the section over the nest) which is covered.

These young birds are ideal for falconry, reintroduction purposes (following a hack process), and future breeding.

The use of this system is supported by several facts, most important perhaps being that using this type of aviary, we have in 2016 successfully achieved production of fertile Verreaux Eagle (Aquila Verreauxii) eggs from foundation stock brought under licence from Tanzania, making us only the 2nd organisation to breed this species.

Once we have discovered what an individual species considers suitable and conducive to breeding, we happily share our knowledge to others trying the same thing in a bid to further the safety of these vulnerable species.

We also breed a few individual pairs of birds because of particularly unusual or rare genetics (rather than rare or complicated species). The young of these are either kept within our own team, or offered for sale to other falconers. Examples of this are our exceptionally large and powerful Harris Hawks, and Faldeggi Lanner Falcons.

Birds we currently have in the breeding project are :

• Verreaux Eagles
• Martial Eagles
• White Backed Vultures
• White Bellied Sea Eagles
• Goshawks
• Lanner Falcons
• Harris Hawks
• Hooded Vultures
• Great Grey Owls

We are expecting the arrival of a few more species, specifically eagles, under licence from across the world over the coming months and years, and as they arrive, you will be able to read about them on our news page, and they will be added here.