Quote Originally Posted by PeteJ View Post
Oldest I've had so far was a Teita female that died recently at the end of her 22nd year. I've had a couple of Goshawks that went until their late teens. I'm sure there are some eagles that have gone longer than that, and Buteos and Parabuteos.
Imprinting definitely makes life easier on accipiters and owls. Buteos and Eagles and Parabuteos it probably doesn't aid you all that much in the handling side of things and actually may be a deterrent to safety in those as imprinting does take the regulator off them and they are by nature forceful and aggressive birds when they feel like dominating their trainer. Normally they are relatively mild to handle when raised in other ways, so unless there was some specific reason (breeding hybrids or something) there would not be any real advantage to doing those types using human imprinting.
Falcons it can help a little, depending on what you hope to accomplish. For breeding purposes, birds such as Merlins, that you wouldn't think would be all that aggressive as pairs, are in fact sometimes extremely aggressive towards each other, with the jack paying the lethal penalty for it if he's in a confined chamber with a female that has a headache. Normally this sort of thing doesn't happen much with Peregrines for instance. So, generally Peregrines are not imprinted that much anymore as they breed well as natural pairs. They also have a stoic personality type if you will, that is not particularly enhanced or changed by imprinting them on humans. Yet, birds such as Prairies, which are not particularly known for having absolutely wonderful and stoic personalities (understatement), can have radically different personalities if imprinted and raised properly.
I guess the aspect to keep in mind is that on a species to species level, there are differences that can be generalized about each species, even when there are individuals that are the exception to those generalities. So, a person contemplating imprinting a bird should weigh many variables and assess these based on the goals they hope to achieve down the line with that species.
Did they change with age on temperament??