Rockcliffe Raptors

Policy

When attending public events it is not our policy to allow our birds to be handled or stroked. 

We realise there are many people who display birds of prey who allow this activity.

However we are of the opinion that this can be both stressful and damaging to our birds, constant stroking can damage their plumage and as they only produce one new set of feathers a year we prefer our birds to look in top condition for as long as possible. By their nature most Raptors and Owls do not like being stroked especially by strangers, in fact one or two of our birds would quite happily give an approaching hand quite a nasty bite! It is also our belief that letting people handle the birds gives the impression that birds of prey make good pets, generally this is not the case. A lot of time has to be spent with birds of prey to build a mutual bond and there is no guarantee that this will be possible with every bird, all our birds have different temperaments some good some not so.