Today in Italy there are about 100 - 120 persons who have falcons or hawks at home and about 40 - 50 fly them. I think we would call "falconer" only those who uses his/her hawk for flying to quarry or lure, not for leaving their birds on perch at home. So the number of falconers in Italy is very small and their political weight is not very great.

The laws about the keeping of hawks respect the Convention of Washington and the CITES. We only can keep raptors born from parents born in captivity (F2 generation) and we absolutely cannot capture birds of prey from the wild. The laws for hunting with falcons or hawks are the same the laws for hunting with guns. The permit, the imposts, the times and the quarries are the same for hawking and shooting. This is sometimes ridiculous, but it is impossible to change a national law because of 40 - 50 falconers.

So we start hawking on the second sunday of September and stop normally at the end of January (but for the hares and partridges at the end of December). In some italian regions flying falcons is allowed from August, but without quarry, only to the lure or fist and only in those territories reserved to the training of hunting dogs.

The permit to hunt is obtained by a test lifetime legal and its yearly cost is (1995) about 400 dollars. There are no limitations on the number of falcons you can have. If you have the money, your first bird could be a white female gyr! This is not right, but you must know that in Europe it is very difficult to buy a Harris, a Red-tail, or simply a Kestrel because most of the breeders breed for the 90% peregrines, sakers and lanners. You know that goshawk breeding is very difficult, because of this and after the gos-trap trap interdict in central Europe,in the past 5 years the price of goshawks has risen and then fallen down.

So I believe the easiest raptor to have today in Europe is the peregrine falcon. Our hawking territories are sometimes wonderful, sometimes very difficult. In Northern Italy(where I live) there are a lot of towns, roads, railways, electric lines, fences etc. It is not easy flying long wings. The Southern Italy could be a heaven for falconry, but it is not used very much because most italian falconers live in Northern Italy.

About the breeding I can say that in Italy there are only a few falconers who have good luck with breeding peregrines and sakers. One reason could be the legal obstacles that a breeder meets on his way. He cannot sell the birds, our government doesn't band the birds, but could make the finger printing, in short the laws seem to be made intentionally to be inapplicable.

Try contacting the Yarak, club di Falconeria listed in the falconry clubs section. Yarak, club di Falconeria is the largest falconry club in Italy.

17th August 1995 Amedeo Traverso.