These few paragraphs come from a chance meeting I had two years ago with a falconer from Ecuador. It is not meant to be taken as a depiction of all falconry in that province, but as a record of a style of falconry which may soon disappear.

Tony is an Ecuadorean Indian who I met by chance in San Juan Bautista, California. He had been shopping at an American Indian store run by friends of mine who happened to mention I was coming down to visit and chase some jacks, and waited patiently two hours for me to show. He was very excited to learn that falconry was legal in the US and asked many questions about obtaining a license. Over dinner later, I managed to get a general picture of how he and his family did their hawking. He had learned falconry from his grandfather, and was the only person in his generation still doing it.

Tony's family is the last in his area still practicing subsistence falconry. My guess is they learned falconry from the Spanish. Their quarry is mostly rabbits and wild chickens. Not being well acquainted with South American hawks I was unable to determine the breed of hawk they use, but it seemed to be in the 30 ounce range and grey to black in color.

The birds are caught as branchers -- "Very easy," Tony said, and mimed grabbing one. Ecuadorean falconers use longish jesses, and do not use gloves -- instead they wear a shoulder pad and perch the bird there. Having a 41-oz female redtail at the time, I could appreciate the concept. If the bird bates, they do not try to hold it until it clambers back onto the fist as we do, they hold the jesses and let the bird go to ground.

Their idea of hoods is particularly unusual. Instead of the usual pitch-blackness required by Occidental and Oriental hoods, they allow a hole on each side. "This way they don't see depth," Tony explained, "they can't tell how far away a quarry is, so they don't go after it. But they can still see if something dangerous is coming." I'm not sure what the bird would do if something dangerous came, but being able to see probably makes them less shy of the hood.