Early on a Tuesday evening in February, as torrential rain pelted office workers heading home, Tahnee Proudfoot stood outside downtown Oakland’s Federal Building with a Harris’s hawk perched on her gloved hand. The hawk’s name is Jasper, and Proudfoot is his handler. The federal building was the last stop of their busy day, and the two of them were there to do a job.
Falconry is the sport of using birds of prey, often raptors such as falcons or hawks, to hunt. Abatement falconry is a form or offshoot of falconry—depending on who you ask— and is often referred to as falconry-based bird abatement. It is the act of using falcons, hawks, and other raptors to deter what are known as nuisance birds from an area.
Nuisance birds are birds like pigeons, seagulls, starlings, and crows that often congregate in large numbers and can cause issues for city officials, farmers, and landowners. Abatement falconers, like Proudfoot, are hired to patrol designated areas every so often, releasing their raptors to simply fly around making unwanted birds nervous—hopefully, nervous enough to leave for good—with their presence.
Unlike traditional falconry, the goal of abatement falconry is not to hunt. It’s to keep nuisance birds away from buildings where their droppings may cause health or aesthetic concerns. The birds that Proudfoot and other urban-based abatement falconers work with are trained to do this in a city setting and may occasionally catch, injure, or kill one of those nuisance birds while working.
Proudfoot walked calmly through the Federal Building’s doors with Jasper on her hand. She wore a small cross-body bag that was filled with all the equipment she would need to do the job: Jasper’s tracking device, a laser pointer to scare off birds, and bits of dead meat for Jasper to eat. Jasper was wearing a hood—a small leather hat that covered his eyes—which helped keep him calm as he went through the indoor space.
Once outside the building, Proudfoot swiftly removed Jasper’s hood, unhooked his legs from where they were secured to her glove, and set him free. He took off and soared to a nearby tree, watching as people, who were largely unaware of the bird of prey that was perched above them, moved in and out of the city building. Jasper didn’t care about the people—he is trained to ignore them. He had other priorities: he was on the “hunt” for nuisance birds.
Jasper flew from one tree to another. Occasionally, Proudfoot would reach into her bag and remove a “tidbit,” a small chunk of raw, feathery quail meat, and whistle the bird over to receive his treat. This act is part of the process; Hawks and other falconry birds like Jasper need stimuli to feel fulfilled on these outings.
“It seems like a silly bird trick, but it gets him feeling like he’s caught something,” said Proudfoot. “It also shows any of the birds in the area of any of the nuisance animals that we’re trying to chase off, he can catch something in the air, so they’re not all safe.”
The Federal Building is one of many urban locations that Proudfoot is contracted to patrol, and Jasper is one of several of Proudfoot’s “working birds,” birds that are certified and licensed to go out with her on urban abatement projects. Proudfoot works as a subcontractor at this location on behalf of the Los Angeles-based company Hawk on Hand.
This type of abatement is not new; rural areas have been utilizing it for some time. Vineyards, farms, and orchards use abatement falcons as a natural way to keep pest birds away from their crops. Urban falconry abatement has grown in popularity in the last few years, and you can now catch these high-flying workers all over the East Bay. BART employed an abatement falconer in 2022 to help solve its nuisance bird problem at the El Cerrito del Norte station.
Proudfoot and Jasper have been working this building for around a month now. When I joined them in February, their presence in the area was pretty well established. We didn’t see too many birds that would have been cause for concern. When they first started, it was far more likely that Jasper would have caught sight of a crow or pigeon and taken off to chase it.
Abatement falconry: an eco-friendly solution to an age-old problem
Falconry as a hunting sport is old—records of falconry practices date back thousands of years—but in comparison, using falconry techniques for urban abatement is fairly new. In 2007, the U.S. The Department of Fish and Wildlife introduced a federal permitting system that allowed the use of falconry abatement in urban settings. Jasper is permitted under this system. In 2019, there were 43 active abatement permits approved in California.
Some nuisance birds—especially pigeons—can be carriers of a couple of diseases that can become airborne and affect people. Notably, they can carry a disease called Cryptococcus, a yeast-like infection that can affect at-risk populations if they breathe it in. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “most cases occur in people who have weakened immune systems.”
Proudfoot has a contract to work the grounds of a hospital, which employs her because they do not want birds to congregate or leave droppings by any of the hospital air vents that could put compromised patients at risk.
Another incentive for ridding an area of nuisance birds is to reduce costs that can come with the presence of flocks of birds on a property. At Oakland’s Federal Building, Proudfoot said that the number of crows that were congregating in the plaza were leaving a significant amount of droppings that would have required dedicated daily power washing to remove. This cleaning requires extra labor, increases costs, and doesn’t solve the root of the problem.
“Pretty much all bird poop is acidic and destructive in some way,” said Proudfoot.
Additionally, using abatement falconry gives property owners an eco-friendly and more natural alternative to traditional pest control methods.
Nuisance bird abatement comes in a variety of forms. Most people are accustomed to seeing bird spikes—sets of metal spikes placed on top of surfaces —to stop birds from roosting on city buildings. Other common methods are using bird repellents, netting, and wire. Poisons, traps, and other more harmful methods have also been used to keep nuisance birds at bay. Using natural methods like abatement falconry can be especially useful in rural settings where crop growers may not want to use chemicals.
Controversy in the falconry community
Not everyone in the falconry community supports abatement as a form of falconry, despite the many falconers working in abatement. Because falconry traditionally involves using the birds for sport, there can be contention as to whether or not abatement falconry, an occupation, is actually falconry.
“It’s really back and forth in the community of falconry as to whether abatement is taken seriously,” said Proudfoot.
In an email to The Oaklandside, a representative from the North American Falconers Association stated, “Abatement is not falconry. It is what we consider a falconry adjacent activity—in abatement, they use falconry techniques to train the birds they use.” The association did not respond by the publication of this article to further requests for comment.
The U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife distinguishes between abatement and traditional falconry in their permitting process.
However, when Proudfoot started her journey into falconry, she always saw abatement as an option. Additionally, she said that she doesn’t think too much about any rifts that can exist within the falconry community and just focuses on the work.
“I don’t exactly fit falconry thing,” said Proudfoot. “But I am the one that’s going to do her job well and do everything that she can to make sure that [I] come home with her birds.”
“Flying toddlers with knives at the end of their feet”
Proudfoot is a self-titled “bird nerd.” She started her foray into falconry after watching a falconer perform at a Southern California Renaissance fair.
“I saw it, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, you can work with raptors! That’s amazing!’” Proudfoot said.
The barrier to becoming a falconer is high. Before a prospective falconer can buy their first bird, they need to train, find a sponsor, and pass various tests and courses. Abatement falconers must first become a “master falconer” to be able to receive an abatement permit. Master falconers have, at a minimum, seven years of experience under their belt. Licenses, examination, and permit costs are just the start and do not come close to the cost of equipment or the costs of the birds themselves.
Proudfoot is traditionally trained as a chef but left that career to pursue her goals in falconry once she had the financial ability. Proudfoot used to work more rural contracts, but she says that she has the special skills that are required of someone who works in an urban setting.
In urban abatement, both the abatement falconer and the birds themselves have to be trained to handle the various circumstances that can arise when flying a large bird through close city quarters. Cars, power and trolly lines, and large crowds can make each outing unique.
Proudfoot has seen everything from people trying to touch the birds to trying purposefully to scare or harm them. She recalled a bird named Xena, a female Harris’s Hawk, which she recently had to retire because the bird was traumatized by an Amazon truck that startled her while she was perched on a stop sign. The bird would become frightened every time she saw an Amazon truck, and Proudfoot could no longer work with her. Xena went on to live in Idaho with another falconer.
While these moments can be challenging for Proudfoot, part of the reason she enjoys the work is because she gets to educate people in the process. She likes talking to people about the birds and why they are there. In the time Proudfoot, Jasper, and I were walking around the Federal Building, three people came up to chat with Proudfoot briefly about the bird, many asking if it was her pet.
While Proudfoot enjoys this avenue of her work, she wants people to understand that she is there to do a job and that birds like Jasper are there to work. Proudfoot reiterates that her birds are not her pets and that they are “trained, not tamed.”
“He’s very pretty, but you can’t come up and pet him,” said Proudfoot. “We like to call them flying toddlers with knives at the end of their feet. And so it’s not like a dog where you can just snap your fingers and say, ‘Hey, come do this.’ We’re asking them to do a skill and a certain behavior, and sometimes they just say, ‘No.’”
Proudfoot continues to do this not only because she’s good at it, but because of all of the benefits that come with it.
“You kind of get to fly with them in a sense,” said Proudfoot. “They kind of have a little bit of a grip on me, and as much as I came into this career really on accident, I’m still here, and that says something.”
