Conservation Strategy
Our vision is to educate the public about the wonderful species of Birds of Prey both native to the UK and
others around the globe whilst bringing to light the struggle of some of the worlds endangered and or
concerned species and what they can do to help, in both a fun and educational way.
Sky Birds of Prey began as a small family business specialising mainly in educational displays. With a
collective experience of over 30 years in falconry and hawking, Sky Birds of Prey grew to be a common
name in many villages as a result of our Falconry Displays in and around the villages we worked with.
Falconry is a sport that has been practised for over 3000 years and to this day very few of the practices
have changed in accordance with modern times.
Education:-
As a fully mobile display team, we are fortunate enough to be able to travel the South East providing talks
and displays to a range of people. Many of which are educational talks in schools.
We provide a range of topics covering a vast curriculum appropriate for ages 2 and up!
With a vision to educate Britain, we are fortunate enough to be able to attend a number of venues
throughout the year and spread our knowledge of birds of prey. We cover topics including, Habitat, Diet,
Mating Habits, Conservation, and how we as humans can help. With a collective knowledge of over 50
years of experience, we’re well equipped to pass on our knowledge and expertise to the younger
generation with the hope to broaden their horizon and that of our native birds of prey.
We have also begun to branch out and take on the challenge that is endangered species. Such as African
Hooded Vultures (Gyps africanus) who are no less susceptible to the cruel effects of diclofenac. We are
committed to raising awareness of the plight of Vultures and the detrimental effect the loss of their species
can have on the world and not only their immediate environment. Along with the difficulties they face as
they naturally try to repopulate and reproduce. It is as we learn, we pass this first-hand knowledge on.
This year alone, as of 24/03/22, we have committed to over 42 offsite displays at schools and events aimed
at children at which we have the opportunity to spread awareness and educate the public in things they
may not necessarily know.
We provide educational talks to a number of venues and schools across Kent and the South East.
Such as:
• Milbrook Garden Centre
• Rowhill Primary School
• Roehill Primary School
• Horizon Primary Academy
• Gossops Green Primary School
• 11th Forest Hill Scouts Group
• Wildlife Drawing
• Hadlow College
• Kent Living Land
• Kent County Fayre
• Countryside Learning
• Townley Grammar School
• Folkestone School for Girls
• Summerhill School
• And Many, many more…
In-Situ Conservation:-
We have only just begun to establish our housing on our site. The last 3 years has been spent building and
improving the housing for the birds in our care before we consider breeding our birds of prey. The process
of this has included a number of studies to be able to obtain the information required to house our birds to
the best of our ability. We have conducted Sun Studies across our site to make educated decisions about
where to house which species. We also made the decision to move a pair of Tawny owls recently. We
noted that they would lay infertile eggs despite that both being housed were female. We discovered that
the wild tawny owls in the trees above ours would call down to them and put them through the motions of
laying eggs. Due to birds of prey only having a limited amount of eggs to lay across their lifespan we made
the decision to move them as a result. The effect of these studies ensures that we use the correct
techniques to ensure the best results from our breeding pairs.
It is our aim in the near future to breed our own ‘Team’ of birds of prey that we can work with on our
experiences and displays. After this and if we see success, we will put together a plan to push forward and
expand on our conservation efforts for the endangered and concerned species in our collection. With the
future of this being planned to incorporate other Zoos and breeding projects into these efforts. Think
project Lugger. We are also building our stock for our breeding facilities with equipment such as,
Incubation, Brooders, heartbeat egg monitors and more.
Going forward, our aim within the breeding side of conservation, we will focus our attention to the likes of
Vultures, their habitat, diet and plight. As we feel this would also be very beneficial in other areas of our
business, as well as the vultures with our extensive list of schools we display to throughout the year!
Our ongoing and successful breeding pairs are:
Crispy & Andy:
Both Crispy and Andy are around 10 years old respectively. As of 2020 Crispy laid her first clutch of eggs! Of
which, only 2 hatched and we were fortunate enough to raise and work with the wonderful Furlough Flo
and Lockdown Lee a creche reared pair that were a delight to raise during lockdown. Following on from
this, Crispy then got back to action and laid another clutch of eggs! 3 of these hatched and we left her to it.
She turned out to be an amazing and attentive mother and her babies wanted for nothing. These 3 are
now valued members of our team too!
Peregrines:
We recently inherited a ‘proven’ pair of Peregrines.
Furthermore, as a business, as we learn and grow, so do our falconers. Over the years, we have trained
numerous people in the workings of falconry and hawking and as we learn, so do our team. With us, our
teammates learn and share the key skills that are associated within falconry. Such as:
Breeding
Mating
Feed
Habitat
Diet
Weight Management
Equipment making
Falconry Knots
Conservation Strategy
Basic Health Care
Handling
Husbandry
Training Methods
Raising Baby Birds
Conservation
Hunting
History of the sport
Tracking & Telemetry
The benefits of working and learning hands-on are paramount to understanding Birds of Prey. They are
commonly misunderstood creatures and, as such, not much in known in respect to their benefits to the
environment. Birds of Prey are top aerial predators, often they are the ‘apex predator’ which means they
are at the very top of the food chain. If they did not exist, the organisms that they eat would become too
numerous and that would threaten the producers at the start of the chain.