Anklet—a little strip of leather that is wrapped around each of the bird’s legs like a tight-fitting bracelet. The jesses are attached to the anklets.
Apex predator—a predator at the top of a food chain, with no natural predators.
Aviary—the place where a bird lives; usually a partially enclosed house with barred or mesh windows or walls. This house is also called a mews.
Bal-chatri trap—a safe trap used by falconers to catch wild birds. Imagine an upside-down bowl made of metal mesh. Inside the bowl, there’s a live mouse. When the hawk flies down, thinking it’s in for an easy meal, it feels something on its foot. This is because the upward-facing part of the bowl is covered with little see-through loops that slip onto the bird’s toes and tighten, holding the bird to the bowl. When the bird realizes this and tries to fly away, it’s held down by the weights along the edge of the bowl.
Bating—an occurrence when the hawk (or owl!) tries to fly off its perch but is held back by a restraint and ends up hanging upside down.
Cast off—the motion that the falconer has to use when a bird is on the falconer’s fist in order to throw or push the bird into the air to encourage it to take flight.
Casting—when a bird coughs up (casts) a pellet (also called a casting). This process is also called pelleting. The pellet is a lump made up of all the bits of food that the bird couldn’t digest. For Rufus, this would be a tightly packed lump of fur and bones, slightly smaller than your fist.
Creance—a long, lightweight string tied to the hawk’s jesses. A creance serves the same purpose as a dog’s leash: it allows the falconer to fly a hawk without having to worry that the hawk is going to fly away forever.
Crop—the pouch along a hawk’s throat where food is stored and digestion begins. Owls do not have a crop.
Crown—the top of a bird’s head. Red can lift the feathers of her crown, creating a kind of frill that looks like . . . well, a crown!
Falconry—the sport of hunting wild game with a trained raptor.
Fledged—when a young bird whose wing feathers have developed enough for flight leaves the nest to start life on its own.
Flying weight—the ideal weight for a bird flown for falconry. Think of this the way you’d think of the weight athletes try to maintain to keep themselves at the top of their game.
Gauntlet—a glove made of thick leather worn by falconers, usually on their less dominant hand, that protects them from a raptor’s sharp talons.
Gizzard—a specialized part of a bird’s stomach with thick, muscular walls used for grinding up food.
Hood—a little leather hat placed on a trained bird’s head. The hood limits the amount of sensory information coming at the bird and helps to keep it calm when driving in a car, for example.
Imprinted—when a bird has been raised by humans and not by other raptors. Imprinted birds will often identify with their humans more than with other raptors.
Jesses—a narrow strip of leather, with a knot at one end, that fits through a hole in the anklet and allows falconers to hold on to their birds.
Manning—the process of getting a wild hawk used to the human world so that it can be used for falconry. The hawk needs not only to become comfortable with its partner but also to get used to that person’s house, car, and even family, friends, and pets.
Mantle—the feathers on a bird’s back right at the start of the wings. This term can also be a verb; raptors mantle over their prey, which means that they stand over it with a hunched back and neck and with their wings spread wide to protect their meal from being stolen.
Mews—see Aviary.
Mute—when a bird poops. The poop itself is also called a mute. Technically, the mute includes both pee and poop, in humans’ terms. See also Whitewash.
Passage bird—a wild raptor that is younger than one year old. In other words, a hawk who has not yet lived through its first winter.
Pellet—see Casting.
Primary feathers—the longest feathers on a bird’s wing, which are farthest away from the bird’s body when the wing is extended. These are attached to the bones at the end of the bird’s wing. Think of them as the fingertips of the bird.
Secondary feathers—the slightly shorter long feathers on a bird’s wing that are closest to the bird’s body when the wing is extended.
Tidbits—small, cut-up bits of raw meat used by falconers as treats for their birds to train them to do what the falconers want. For example, a falconer offers tidbits to get a hawk to hop to the fist or fly to the fist from a perch.
Whitewash—white streaks with brownish clumps “pooped” out by an owl, though the white parts are more similar to human pee and the brown clumps are . . . well, poop. See also Mute.