Avian Training Workshop 2014

World Bird Sanctuary will be hosting its hugely popular Avian Training Workshop Thursday, October 30-Sunday, November 2nd, 2013.

If you've considered attending the World Bird Sanctuary Avian Training Workshop in the past but couldn’t work it into your schedule, now is your chance to plan ahead.   There's still plenty of time to arrange your schedule and take advantage of the early registration bonus!  Save $100 by registering before October 1st!

The classroom sessions cover a multitude of subjects

What is an Avian Training Workshop you may ask?  

The WBS Avian Training Workshop is an intensive 4-day workshop, which covers all aspects of housing, training, feeding and caring for raptors, parrots, corvids, and many other species.  The workshop includes both classroom and hands-on training.

You may have the opportunity to participate in emergency medical care of a patient

Subjects covered in the classroom section include:  

*  Establishing your own program--permits, insurance, facilities, staff & volunteers

*  Working with and training your bird--manning and positive reinforcement, desensitizing

*  Choosing the correct species to work with

*  Transportation--crates, permits, driving, flying, shipping

*  Housing--mews, jumpboxes, A-frames, flight cages, climate, hotwiring enclosures, substrates

*  Perch types--bow, platform, screen, etc.--which perch works best for which species

*  Diets--food types, frozen vs. live, storage, prep, raising food colonies, vitamins

*  Training your birds for flying--weight management, base weights, target weights, flyer food

Everybody's favorite--learn to fly a raptor

Everybody's favorite--the hands-on section:

Our staff believes the only way to learn is through the hands-on experience of doing things yourself.  At our workshop you will have the opportunity to actually do the following:

*  Make jesses & anklets

*  Practice imping feathers

*  Experience coping and trimming of a raptor

*  Participate in simple public speaking games and learn how different elements make you a better public speaker

*  Fly a Harris' Hawk and/or Barn Owl with WBS staff

*  Help train a new behavior with a Raven or crow (continues throughout the workshop)

*  "Be the Bird" in our training game

*  Participate in emergency medical care and do a gross necropsy on a raptor

The workshop also includes an extensive tour of WBS' facilities and opportunities to see birds and housing in use and up close.

RESERVATIONS REQUIRED.  Workshop has a minimum of 10 participants and a maximum of 25.

WHEN:  Thursday, Oct. 30 through Sunday, Nov. 2

EARLY REGISTRATION:  Sign up by October 1st - Cost - $650/person

LATE REGISTRATION:  Sign up after October 1st - Cost - $750/person

$100 non-refundable deposit required by 10/01/13 for early registration, balance due by 10/15/13.

Registration fee includes lunch each day.

Transportation to and from St. Louis, hotel accommodations and breakfast & dinner are the responsibility of each participant.

To download a registration form CLICK HERE

Further questions?  Contact Melissa Moore, 636-225-4390, ext. 0 or email workshop@worldbirdsanctuary.org

I Love My Job

I love my job--working with birds at the World Bird Sanctuary and seeing the look on a kid's face right after a bird flies just above their head.  But for me, the single best part of my job is doing zoo shows; more precisely, training different behaviors that our birds perform during those shows.

The process of working with a bird to teach, refine and perfect a behavior is the single coolest thing I get to do.  During our zoo shows we get to showcase these amazing behaviors for others to witness.  

For example:

Locust, our Red-Legged Seriema will slam a rubber snake into the ground, mimicking how they do this in the wild to kill snakes and break up the bones to make it easier for the Seriema to swallow.  

Red-legged Seriemas have a unique method for capturing and killing prey...the Seriema Slam!

Cupid, one of our American Barn Owls, can find and fly to a trainer offstage without being able to see them.  This is possible because of a special "pish" cue.  Barn Owls can find the audible cue because of a specialized facial disc made of controllable stiff feathers that will direct sound to their ears.  In the wild they use this ability to track down prey at night, sometimes even in complete darkness.  

Scarlett, our Red-Shouldered Hawk can fly out from behind a corner and find a trainer in mid-flight.  This is called a "blind release" because they can't see where the trainer is before they start flying.  In the wild, Red-Shouldered Hawks live in woodlands near rivers, flying through the trees.  So, it is important for them to be able to quickly see where they need to go in case they are flying at prey to catch and eat.  

Scarlett, the Red-shouldered Hawk executes a blind release to the on-stage trainer 

Hugnin, a White-Necked Raven, will take generous dollar donations from your hand and put them inside of her donation box, mimicking how in the wild ravens, crows, jays and other birds will hide or 'stash' items that they find valuable.  This can also include food—just in case they can't find enough another day--then they can go back to their stash to eat.  

These are just a few examples of some of the different behaviors our birds do during our educational shows at different zoos throughout the summer.  To see these amazing behaviors and many more, you will just have to come visit us next summer at Milwaukee County Zoo in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or at Stone Zoo, just north of Boston, Massachusetts.

We will be in Milwaukee from Memorial Day until Labor Day and Boston's Stone Zoo from 1 May through Labor Day, every day of the week, three times a day, weather permitting, of course.  We hope to see you there!

Submitted by Mike Cerutti, World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist/Trainer

A Trainer's Pride

The end of the year is a time for reflection. You look back on how you grew throughout the year, what you learned, the mistakes you made, and the risks you took.

I reflected a few years back about how I became a bird person (a total surprise to me) and then later a parrot person( again a shock).  This year, though, is the year that I finally feel like a bird trainer.

I started with World Bird Sanctuary as an intern in 2008.  From there I was given command of our Grant’s Farm show; six display birds and one flyer, but all of the birds were already trained and established in their patterns before I came along.  In 2009 I went to my first World Bird Sanctuary zoo show program, where we present bird programs for zoo guests for a whole summer, and learned a lot.  In 2010 I was an assistant supervisor, and in 2011 I became supervisor of a zoo show.  For all of those years, though, I was either in the beginning stages or just did not know enough to feel confident in my own ability.  By 2012 I felt better, trained a few birds and started training Zeus our almost 2 year old Golden Eagle. It wasn’t until the other day though that everything really clicked.

Zeus taking food from my glove

I was standing in the atrium of Zeus’ outdoor mew watching a fellow staff member work with Zeus on the glove for their first time.  I was nervous I’ll admit.  I still remember walking Zeus around before he had anything attached to his legs that I could hold onto.  I remember when he would try and crawl up my glove, or hop off and over to his training perch.  I was picturing the countless training sessions, when we first started out, where he would not come down to his perch.  Just then he stepped up.  He let my co-worker lock his jesses.  He delicately took food from her hand and then stepped back onto the perch—beautiful!…and it hit me!   I helped do that! 

I helped take a bird that was parent raised and basically wild, who wanted nothing to do with people, and I taught it to sit on a glove.  Countless people aided in Zeus’ training and I know they all must share the same sense of pride, because it was amazing.  Suddenly I flashed back to Zeus coming to the training perch for the first time, taking a piece of food with me watching, then standing next to the perch, his first step up, his first walk around his enclosure, the first time he stepped up after being put on equipment…I could go on and on.  It was an amazing moment for me, and at first I thought it was an epiphany, but then I recalled a similar feeling from this summer when Reese flew in our shows.

 Reese during an early-on training session trying to figure out why he was not rewarded for flying to the vending machine...it was flat topped like his stump!

We took Reese, our one year old at the time, Great Horned Owl to the Milwaukee County Zoo for the summer season so that he could get used to the daily routine of being a zoo show bird.  Then we got ambitious and decided to train him to free fly.  For the final month of shows Reese flew in shows.  His first show I could not have been more proud of him!  I think I made that poor audience applaud for him about five different times!  He flew perfectly, didn’t even glance at the audience and flew for larger and larger crowds.  I may have stopped talking briefly because I was smiling so hard.  There is no feeling in the world quite like watching your bird do what you trained it to do…except maybe parental pride?  I wonder if I can get a bumper sticker for my bird’s accomplishments.

Reese making a spot-on landing on his stump--and about to collect his reward

A few years ago if you had asked me what exactly I do, I would have told you that I work with birds.  Last year I might have said I help train birds.  This year however I finally feel like I train the birds, and though I am still learning more and more every day and seeking help when I need it, it is an amazing feeling! 

Honestly the sense of pride I get when watching my birds is quite possibly the best way I could ever think of to end 2013, and who knows what adventures await me in 2014.

Submitted by Leah Tyndall, World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist/Trainer