‘They teach you’: The art of falconry soars in Italy
Ferruginous hawks, like this one at Falconeria Serenissima in Padua, Italy, are native to North America and prized by falconry instructors.
Avedis Hadjian
Venice, Italy
“We usually hold falcons on our left side, so they feel the beating of our heart,” says Antonella Pintore.
A distinguished falconer now based in Bolsena, a town of breathtaking beauty by the eponymous lake in central Italy, Ms. Pintore is also a historian of the Middle Ages and an archaeologist specializing in Etruscan language and culture.
She has trained a new batch of falconers, including Valter Zanin, who, in turn, offers courses at Serenissima falconry school in Padua. On a recent weekend, a beginners’ class is full of couples and families with children. For seven hours, participants become acquainted with two Harris’ hawks; a ferruginous hawk; royal, snowy, and barn owls; and other birds. They learn to work together with the birds as a team.
Why We Wrote This
Humans often view animals as creatures to be owned as pets or pulled into service. For these Italian falconers, they are teammates.
“You don’t teach them; they teach you,” Mr. Zanin says of the birds.
Both Ms. Pintore and Mr. Zanin engage in sporting falconry that does not involve killing the quarry, unlike hunting falconry. “Play with them and they will play back,” Ms. Pintore says.
Falconry has also found a role in a modern economy. Marco Polo Airport in Venice uses falcons for bird control. Falconer Stefano Negri works with Lady, a Harris’ hawk, to scare pigeons, ducks, herons, and other birds from the tarmac. While he is strongly attached to the animal, he’s inclined to believe that the relationship with birds of prey is essentially transactional: They work for food.
Like every falconer, Mr. Negri checks on Lady’s well-being every morning, weighing her and running a health check. As an example of interspecies cooperation, both animal and human rely on each other and are comfortable together.
Editor's note: The final caption of this article has been updated to correct the type of owl featured. It is a spectacled owl.