Peregrine falcon and a hybrid

The far bird - Loopy- is a hybrid between a lanner falcon and a peregrine. The birds have to be imprinted to a human on emergence from the egg then hand reared in order to get the female bird to 'stand' for the male. In this way a hybrid bird can be produced. Both these birds are only 10 weeks old but have reached their full size. They are in training and the nearer bird -Tig- had his first totally free flight yesterday. Obviously a tense time for the owner. She said the birds have very small transmitters on them in case they get lost or distracted. Tig came straight back so the owner was very happy.