tiercel or female for fist red tail

[Falcon Boy]

Oldguy, i agree with you. I have only had two season where i released immy redtails that hit the trap, both the times i was ridge trapping with my sponsor and "guarenteed" i would catch other birds. The ones i released one season were one with alot of tail damage from sitting on it on kills and one with a lot of bite marks on the toes. The other seson the bird had feet almost as small as a kestrel... so i released it and kept trapping.

[raptrlvr]

Well, I almost agree with oldguy on this. The problem here in California is we really don't have a cold season. We also have so many RT's that we can go out and have our pick on what bird we want. It is not uncommon for us to trap 3 or 4 RT's in one outing and to have one wrapped up on the car seat and another sitting on the trap. I can honsetly say that you are guarenteed another bird if your sponsor is just have way decent at trapping. When we are training our falcons we have several wild prairie falcons come in on our birds and try to take the pigeons.

[cpdecoste]

For game a female, for the experience of learning how to train and handle a red tail I'd lean towards a male. They are still capable hunters in their own right, but I've found that they aren't as much of a handful.

Females seem to know they should be in charge and can be more... how should I say this, strong willed, but if you think you are up to it and have the time to handle them daily, a female can be just as lovely.

That's my experience at any rate.