Quote Originally Posted by colelkhunter View Post
Concentrate on what you need now. If you are an apprentice you will not have an imprint as the birds you will be working with will be passage and way past the point of imprinting.
Actually, with the new regs an apprentice in many states can now start out with an imprint captive bred bird. It's best not to, but it is available...

Red tails and Harris hawks are not good birds to imprint. Even some really early trapped "passage" RTs become very aggressive and dangerous. Harris hawks are best kept with parents and siblings for up to 16 weeks to have the used to the social life. If trapping a wild HH, it is best to go for older birds rather than the real young ones for the same reason.

I've imprinted many accipiters over the past 35-40 years and just about all of them turned out great. The few with problems required some corrective training and turned into great birds also. To read about my current challenge, go to "Imprint ID" subject line below.