Last year, we were overjoyed to welcome Matilda, our first Hooded Vulture chick to hatch here at the Trust. Now at over a year old, she’s really coming in to her own. Bird Team member Owen Lincoln has began working alongside Matilda, helping her to take her first wingbeats towards joining our flying team – which he tells us all about in this month’s Bird Team Blog!

“Hello readers,

It’s with great privilege that I am writing this article all about my work alongside our Hooded Vulture chick from 2023, Matilda. Or, commonly known to the Bird Team as ‘Tilly’.

Over my near eight year career of working with birds, I have been lucky to be tasked with training a wide array of different species and family groups – ranging from Hornbills, to owls and eagles and most things in-between. However, I was yet to work with a vulture, let alone the first Hooded Vulture ever to hatch at the Hawk Conservancy Trust!

When I started working with Matilda she was around about a year of age, after living with her parents in an off-show aviary, where she would learn vital social skills from her parents. This is really important, as she will hopefully be moving in with our main team of Hooded Vultures soon, and will need to find her place within that group.

Matilda came to live with me on the section of the Trust I look after, called the Middle Section, which allowed plenty of opportunity for her to get used to me and the daily life of the Trust around her.

Once she was settled, I began going into her aviary to begin building our bond.  She was initially, understandably a bit wary of me, and was not keen to come and eat food from my glove. This continued for a few days before something clicked. Patience is always required and I realised with Matilda, that when I either sat or lay down in her aviary with food in my outstretched glove, giving her the chance to build up her confidence, she came to me when she was ready. Eventually Matilda’s fascination with my glove became apparent, as more time went on spent together, she would later comfortably hop to my outstretched glove for a tasty morsel.

As well as working towards joining the flying team, we worked on her in-aviary routine which included helping her feel comfortable with the scales. This is really important as is has allowed me to get an accurate weight and allow for health checks, necessities when flight training a young bird.

Once she mastered jumping to my glove in her aviary, and she felt confident and the bond was building, I knew it was time for our next step. We then moved Matilda to an aviary near our Savannah Arena, whilst still off-show to the daily visitors. This way she could still see all of our team walking by regularly and hear their voices. Plus, the location was also perfect to begin her taking to the skies.

We began by giving young Tilly the opportunity to walk out the aviary door, and hop to my glove each day whilst slowly getting further and further into the Savannah Arena. She’s been an absolute star, and we’re now currently as the stage where at the time of writing this article, Matilda is starting to develop her independent flying skills and confidence.  This is always a rewarding moment when working with any new bird as it really puts all those previous months of work to the test. Seeing this young vulture gain confidence and her bold personality shine through has been a real treat, and I am looking forward to introducing her to all of you throughout the winter season where she will hopefully make her first appearance in our flying displays!

Thanks for reading and I will hopefully see you all in the near future.”