Quote Originally Posted by MichaelR View Post
I was reading the new Texas regulations and it says that an apprentice may not possess an imprinted raptor. Is it possible to acquire a non-imprinted raptor and have it become imprinted, and if it happens would said apprentice give up his/her bird?
It is my understanding that in order to imprint, the bird needs to be raised from a very early age (eyas) by humans. This wouldn’t be possible for an apprentice because they’re not allowed to start with an eyas as far as I know.

As a second year apprentice the excitement of all the possibilities falconry has to offer is still very fresh in my mind. Heck, during my pre-apprentice time my wife almost had me convinced I needed to start out with a Saw-Whet owl because she thought they were so cute. :-o The fact of the matter is, as a pre-apprentice or apprentice there’s just no way of knowing what is truly involved in falconry & what it takes to keep a healthy bird or harder yet, keep the bird happy (It’s been my observation that a raptor is not truly happy unless it’s out hunting live quarry) until you’ve actually kept a bird under the guidance of a sponsor.

I guess where I’m going with this is that it’s my opinion there are good reasons that imprint’s aren’t available to apprentices. Unlike our UK friends we have the fantastic opportunity of trapping passage birds. As an apprentice this is a win win situation. We get to learn how to care for a bird that is already fully capable of taking care of itself. This means the mistakes we make in training the bird (and we all make mistakes as apprentices) don’t have to follow us or the bird for the rest of its life. We can release the passage bird (after certain preparation of course) at which time it should revert back to its wild state & resume hunting as it did prior to capture. In turn, the bird has taught us many valuable lessons that will help us with our future birds. Imprints are not releasable, therefore making an apprentices mistakes more harmful to both the bird & the birds caregiver for the extent of the birds life.