Support the Wildlife Center’s care of Buddy

Please check back in for periodic updates on the eagle’s training.

A Helpful Guide to Raptor Training Terminology

February 1 Update – Darcie Huntress

Buddy has been back in training now for ten weeks, and though Ray and I have made good progress with him in some areas, it has not been without its trials. The “getting to know you” period is over, and now during some sessions he’s so comfortable with me he seems to treat me like another eagle. On days when his motivation is on the low side, he likes to greet me on the way in to his travel crate by kicking me in the leg. I can only guess what kind of gratification he derives from doing this – so far he has not hurt me – but ultimately all I can do is try not to give him the opportunity. Our good friends at Kjellstrom & Lee Construction in Staunton donated some safety equipment – with a few alterations specific to my needs (ha ha).

Buddy's Toy

We have been successful in teaching Buddy to “leave it” – he knows he needs to look up and away from his food in order to earn it. I have also been successful in training him to walk into a travel crate with scales inside . We weigh all of our birds regularly to make sure they are maintaining a healthy weight, so this is a valuable husbandry behavior to have trained.

Buddy entering his travel crate (1 of 3)

Buddy entering his travel crate (2 of 3)

Buddy in his travel crate (3 of 3)

Where we have not been successful is in training him to “stay” on his A-frame perch in his enclosure and wait for me to bring his treat to him. After struggling with this for a couple of weeks everyone needed a change, so we have started some “dark sessions”.

In order for Wildlife Center staff to be able to take him to presentations away from the Center, it is crucial that he be comfortable on the glove and not bate [try to fly away]. Buddy, as a diurnal raptor, is disinclined to fly in the dark.

By bringing him into a small room in the Center where we can block out all the outside light (for those of you familiar with the building layout, we do this in the small hallway just outside the bathroom), we can darken the room when he begins to show signs of stress. Raptors seem to operate on the principle of “if I can’t see you, you’re not there and life is good” and Buddy has proven to be no exception!

Falconers, including Ray, have used this method to gently acclimate wild birds to being handled on the glove. We bring Buddy, in his covered travel crate, into the building and darken the room. We have a small night light bulb on a pressure switch that we can flash on for brief moments just to get our bearings. I am able to get Buddy to step onto my glove in the dark, and bring him out of the crate. I get a piece of food ready and turn on the light. The aim is to get Buddy to the point where he stops reacting to being in a new environment and to notice – and eat – the food I am offering him. This is important because fear and hunger are stored in the same space in a raptor’s brain – eating the food means the fear has subsided.

We accomplish this in stages by giving Buddy brief exposures to his new environment and turning off the light when he begins looking for a higher perch (where he would feel more secure). He is not being restrained using falconry equipment during these sessions, so when the lights are on he is staying on my glove by choice.

Buddy adapted to this very quickly, and during our second session he was completely unfazed.

I’m excited about the milestones we will hit in the coming month, and am looking forward to being able to bring Buddy out to programs to meet all of his fans. In the meantime, I want to show off one of his best behaviors, so I have recorded a brief video of one of his sessions being fed and weighed inside his travel crate. Enjoy!

Click here to watch a video of Buddy

January 10 Video Treat

We managed to capture some video footage of Buddy enjoying his pond on Friday, January 6. Enjoy!

December 7 Update – Darcie Huntress

My first two weeks of training with Buddy was a period of us getting to know and be comfortable with each other, as well as an opportunity for Ray to observe Buddy and make adjustments to the training plan.  Buddy already knows a lot of the “what” to do; we worked on shaping the “how” in the first training sessions.  Ray described it this way:

“The first two times I had contact with Buddy, I could tell he had done everything I presented to him before, but he was not comfortable. I do not know what any bird or animal thinks, but most problems are from fear or resource issues — seeing a human as a competitor for food or as something that may grab them.

Buddy’s reactions were nervousness, not staying in one spot, attempting to snatch and run with food (i.e., my presence meant competition for the food), or simple distrust. He simply would be more comfortable eating someplace away from me. For a bird that large, carrying a small piece of food that he could quickly swallow means he is not comfortable in his present circumstances.”

Our first objective was to have Buddy become more comfortable and relaxed around me, and to have him stop seeing me as competition for food. I spent a few sessions feeding Buddy while he was perched on my gloved hand, while looking for opportunities to reward him for sitting calmly without “gripping” — clenching his talons on the glove. After a few sessions we changed gears and I fed him while he was on his A-frame perch.  I rewarded him when he had both feet on the perch and he looked away from the glove – similar to teaching your dog to “leave it.”By the third session of feeding him like this – and at this point each session is lasting only a few minutes – Buddy was noticeably calmer and more comfortable with me standing close to him. The fact that we were able to accomplish this change in attitude and behavior in what amounted to 15 or 20 minutes of training is a testament to the effectiveness of operant conditioning.

Animals sometimes don’t make the connection between the specific behavior they are offering that is being rewarded. This is called superstitious behavior, and Karen Pryor discusses this in her book, Don’t Shoot the Dog. The subject’s understanding of the criteria for reward, while appearing to match ours, may actually be very different. To give an example, Ray told me about his mother-in-law’s dog. When he was visiting her house for the holidays one year, he came into the kitchen in the middle of the night and switched on the light to find the dog there, staring intently at a spot on the floor. He couldn’t understand why the dog would do this, so he spent the next few days observing it. He came to realize that his mother-in-law was somewhat careless about dropping food scraps on the floor when she was cooking, but the dog hadn’t figured out that the treats were being dropped from above – he thought they came from the floor, and that if he just waited long enough they would appear.

When rewarding Buddy I have to be on the lookout for potential superstitious behaviors that I might be reinforcing without meaning to. For example, if I’m focusing more on where Buddy’s feet are and I don’t notice that he has his mouth open each time I reward him, he may think that in order to get his reward he needs to open his mouth for me. This process is more about training me than it is about training Buddy!

One benefit to operant conditioning is that you can build a repertoire of behaviors which can then be combined to produce new behaviors. We were successful in applying that principle this week when Buddy mastered the “leave it” game. We transferred this behavior to a new station – the scales – and now Buddy will come to the scale and sit still while I weigh him. We practice this every day, and it is just the beginning of the behaviors we will train in the coming months.

On the flip side, using this training method is very effective at “extinguishing” certain behaviors. By teaching Buddy to “leave it” and ignore the glove, I ended up extinguishing him flying or stepping up to the glove! But that is okay, because flying to the glove is easy enough to re-train, and that is what we are working on now. First I rewarded him for putting one foot on the glove. Then when he put one foot on the glove I slowly raised my arm until he put both feet on the glove. Once he was stepping onto the glove again, I increased my distance from the perch so he had to hop to the glove to get his reward, and now I am able to stand three or four feet away and he will fly to the glove.

Here are some snapshots of moments from our recent sessions, showing off some of Buddy’s repertoire:

Buddy sits on the scales to earn his reward

Buddy flies to the glove

November 29 Update – Darcie Huntress

Rather than jump right in with talking about Buddy’s training in the specific, I think this is a good time to give some background on the training approach we are using. Ray Norton, a master falconer here in Virginia, is mentoring me and some of the other WCV staff in how to train Buddy using operant conditioning – also known as clicker training. The principles of clicker training were established by behavioral researcher B.F. Skinner; Karen Pryor brought it to the masses when she learned to apply it to training dolphins and a variety of other animals. Ray says if it has a brain and it eats, it can be trained this way.

Operant conditioning reinforces desired behavior with a reward. The clicker (or whistle, in this case) is a way to mark the desired behavior; it becomes a communication tool between trainer and animal. When the principles are applied cleanly and consistently, the click signals it is reward time. Buddy’s prior training laid a good foundation for our future work. For example, Buddy would sit on his perch and have his evening meal thrown in to him – a fun game of catch, but one which reinforced him for sitting in one place and returning there after each item was eaten. Now we are changing the game. His meal – cut up into bite-size pieces – becomes his reward for working.  It is already clear that Buddy is bright and entirely capable of learning all the things we want to teach him.

So the question for many people will be, how will we shape his behavior? We start by reinforcing behaviors that he already offers, and in fact this is already occurring. One behavior he already offers is sitting on his A-frame perch. This behavior has already been reinforced as described above. He also already knows to fly to a handler’s gloved hand when it is raised, and we are working with him to sit there calmly without clenching with his talons.

The point where his training will really take off will come once he makes the connection that a blow of the whistle means he has done something for which he will be rewarded. Once this recognition occurs, we will start reinforcing new behaviors. As he begins to offer these behaviors consistently we can begin to put some of them on cue and then use them to build chains of behavior. We have many training goals for Buddy, including having him go into and out of his travel crate of his own volition and stepping onto the scales so he can be weighed.

It is already very rewarding to see the wheels turning and his comprehension of how the game changes. In the wild, eagles constantly change their tactics to get the sustenance they need, so we are engaging that part of Buddy’s natural history in this process and making life here at the Wildlife Center that much more interesting and engaging for him.

November 22 update

After a break in training for a couple of months and moving into his new enclosure, Buddy is ready to get back to work!  The Wildlife Center staff will be working with an experienced falconer to train Buddy.  The goal is not only to train Buddy to sit calmly on a handler’s gloved hand – but also to get Buddy to enjoy sitting on the glove.  This way, he can travel to programs and presentations off-site.

Falconer Ray came to the Wildlife Center on the afternoon of November 18 to get to know Buddy, to meet with Center staff, and get a sense of where Buddy is with his training. Buddy did quite well and hopped up on Ray’s glove several times.  Ray repeated a Buddy session on November 19, and then on the afternoon of November 20, Ray worked with both Buddy and outreach coordinator Darcie.  Since Ray won’t be able to travel to the Wildlife Center every day to train Buddy, he will be “training the trainers” too — and getting various staff members involved.

May 23 update from Claire Thain

Buddy has been doing very well with getting used to being in the passageway behind his enclosure.   The mailbox perch has been very helpful with keeping him comfortable while being in this new space – actually, it didn’t take Buddy long to adjust and realize that this area isn’t so scary after all!

Buddy has been doing so well that I decided that he was ready for the next big step.  Last week, we began working on walking through the door from the passageway … and then a few steps into the outside world!  To help him with this next transition, his mailbox perch was moved outside, several feet away from the door.  This “safety net” should help Buddy stay comfortable as he gets used to being outside of both enclosures.

The daily routine now will consist of bringing Buddy out of his enclosure into the passageway on the glove – with the leash securely attached to his jesses.  We’ll then be working on walking through the back door of the passageway.  The mailbox perch will remain several feet away, in case Buddy would like to hop to it for a quick break.

The end goal is getting closer — exposing him to the outside world and getting comfortable seeing people around him while he sits on the glove!

April 28 update

Happy Birthday, Buddy!  Despite the chaos due to the arrival of the 2011 Norfolk Botanical Garden Eaglets — Buddy’s little siblings — Buddy was celebrated on this busy spring day.  To mark the occasion, he was served a nice, tasty bluefish — which he managed to devour fairly quickly for having such a crooked beak!  Buddy also received a new toy, which was highly entertaining.

One of Buddy’s generous fans also made sure that the WCV staff were able to participate in the celebration too — with cake!

New birthday stick:

April 21 update from Claire Thain

Buddy continues to become more comfortable with staying on the glove for extended periods of time. He will also sit on the perch as I attach the swivel and leash. Therefore, he has moved to the next step – introducing him to the idea of going through the door of his enclosure.

Buddy’s enclosure has a “double door” system, meaning that there is a secure passageway attached to the back of his enclosure.  Most of the WCV flight pens have this system — it makes entering and exiting cages much safer because it helps prevent escapes.  For Buddy, this means he will need to learn how to navigate through two doors while remaining on the glove.

Buddy seems to be comfortable with going through the first door – from the enclosure to the passageway  – but gets nervous once he moves out in the passageway. To help with this process, a “mailbox perch” was built by WCV volunteer Bob Post.  The new perch is in the shape of a giant mailbox and is sits on the ground.

Over the past few weeks, I have trained Buddy on this new mailbox perch inside his enclosure.  Yesterday, the perch was moved out into the passageway to provide a familiar landmark to Buddy in this new environment.  If he is too nervous continuing to sit on the glove once he’s in the hall, he then has the option to fly to this perch.

The goal is to work at his pace and train him to stay on the glove as he goes through the doors.

March 15 update from Claire Thain

Buddy is growing more comfortable with stepping up and staying on the glove.  This is a video summary of a recent training session with Buddy.

I can currently walk around his mew while he stays on the glove.  The next step – introducing him to “the door” of his enclosure.

Video of Buddy’s training March 2011

February 2011 Buddy Timeline

Lately, several WCV staff members have remarked on how quickly Buddy’s appearance is changing.  While it will still be a couple of years until Buddy’s head is entirely white, he’s certainly growing up and changing by the month.  Here’s a look back over the past two years:

February 2009

February 2010

February 2011

January 25, 2011 update from Claire Thain

Buddy’s training is coming along with some ups and downs—sometimes he does exactly what’s asked of him, and other times he’s extremely headstrong.  If he doesn’t perform the behaviors I ask of him the first time, I’ll leave and come back later for a second training session.  I’m trying some new techniques and regularly consult with other eagle trainers as Buddy’s training progresses.

Bating off the glove is a regular experience for Buddy; however, this behavior will lessen as he becomes more comfortable staying on the trainer’s glove.  At this point, he still has not learned to come back up and grip his feet on the glove, which he should be learning soon.

Figuring out the best way for him to understand how to do this has presented a challenge. As an alternative, I’ve been working with Buddy to teach him to make short flights to the glove. I’m hoping that this training will help encourage him to grip the glove.  Buddy caught on quickly to this technique when I first introduced it.  Hopefully, flying to the glove combined with increased amounts of time staying on the glove will help Buddy learn how to return to the glove from a bate.

JANUARY 25 UPDATE, 3:00 pm:   Amanda Nicholson, Director of Outreach, accompanied Claire on today’s training session to take some photos of Buddy for this training update—and for the first time, Buddy bated and returned to the glove!  Claire was thrilled with this break-through and hopes that Buddy will continue to repeat this behavior consistently.

Medical Updates
Support the Wildlife Center’s care of the Bald Eagle