Falconeering (Training and Domesticating Wild Birds)

[Cynical Cynicist]

Equip Tool: Falconer's Glove (a hard-leather glove that the bird is perched on, when traveling with the owner)

Recipe: 1 Rope + 1 Sewing Kit + 4 Beefalo Wool

Durability: 50 bird perchings

No Sanity Effect

 

Process of Training A Bird: 

1) Place bird in Bird Cage

2) Stitch eyelids of bird shut (using a Sewing Kit) or wrap a blindfold around its head (placing a hat on its head)

3) Equip the Falconer's Glove and keep it perched, until the bird stops showing signs of struggle (abrupt movements, feathers, screeching, etc.)

4) Tie a rope to its leg, attaching the other end to yourself

5) Attach a bell to its leg

6) Remove anything obstructing the bird's view

7) Allow to it to roam freely (still restrained by the rope) and grab meat, upon which your character will tug and pull the rope back to perch the bird on his/her arm again

8) Repeat this until the bird retrieves the meat and brings it back to the player without any further prompting; the rope will automatically be removed at this point

9) Your bird is now tamed; you can signal for it to go out hunting for meat, which will be brought back to you

 

Mechanics: Birds will either bring the player a steady income of meat on a daily basis, or be rather erratic in behavior and take either a shorter or longer period of time to return.

 

After initial training is complete, the bird is at its most likely to fly off somewhere and never return. As more and more retrievals are complete, the odds of this occurring become marginally less until full trust has been established.

 

If the bird lands on a player without a Falconer's Glove equipped, some damage will be dealt and the bird will become startled, reducing this "trust" factor somewhat. An already well-accustomed bird will be affected by this less, however.

 

Repeatedly sending the bird off on hunts will tire it. Regularly restoring it to its Bird Cage and feeding it will keep it content. As time passes it will become more durable and capable of catching more prey.

[Tayburro]

I dunno snowbirds don't exactly strike me as the killing type.

Maybe there could be a falcon or some other large bird of prey added which only appears when there is a bird trap filled with meat within 2 screens?

It would be cool.

[Craig_Perry]

Falconry would be rather cool, this method looks rather complex and realistic though while it shouldn't be easy this method requires a lot of knowledge on the matter and wouldn't be the best for younger and uninformed audiences.

 

still a very good idea though

[5raptorboy777]

Can you use gobblers?

[ARamblingSpider]

Can you use gobblers?

I'm imagining that.

 

Oh God I'm laughing actually.

[Tayburro]

I'm imagining that.

 

Oh God I'm laughing actually.

On that day not one berry was spared......

[Cynical Cynicist]

Can you use gobblers?

 

Quite possibly. Heck, you might be even able to send them out on 5 day runs, returning full of berries and barely walking. Then, simply picking it up and throwing it in a crock-pot yields Turkey Dinner! Obviously this will be accompanied by desperate squabbling and struggle inside of the pot...

 

As for the method being too difficult; once learned it's really not that challenging. Heck, depending on the way you train it it's purpose could change, so there would be no technically "incorrect" way of doing things (unless you kill the bird, of course).

 

I agree though, the current birds are quite meager and would probably only bring seeds or berries. With the addition of hawks and more genus's, this might become more practical. After all, there isn't really a genuine bond established between the bird and its owner, only the animal recognizing this as an easier alternative towards hunting on its own and exploiting it. You just have to make it recognize this opportunity.

 

A Harris' Hawk (Parabuteo uncinctus) is recognized as quite an intelligent genus, also renowned as the best rabbit catchers. They even catch other birds. This could be a standard bird to train, whilst other more "specialized" types would excel in an area but also have specific needs that must be tended to.

[5raptorboy777]

Quite possibly. Heck, you might be even able to send them out on 5 day runs, returning full of berries and barely walking. Then, simply picking it up and throwing it in a crock-pot yields Turkey Dinner! Obviously this will be accompanied by desperate squabbling and struggle inside of the pot...

 

As for the method being too difficult; once learned it's really not that challenging. Heck, depending on the way you train it it's purpose could change, so there would be no technically "incorrect" way of doing things (unless you kill the bird, of course).

 

I agree though, the current birds are quite meager and would probably only bring seeds or berries. With the addition of hawks and more genus's, this might become more practical. After all, there isn't really a genuine bond established between the bird and its owner, only the animal recognizing this as an easier alternative towards hunting on its own and exploiting it. You just have to make it recognize this opportunity.

 

A Harris' Hawk (Parabuteo uncinctus) is recognized as quite an intelligent genus, also renowned as the best rabbit catchers. They even catch other birds. This could be a standard bird to train, whilst other more "specialized" types would excel in an area but also have specific needs that must be tended to.

Can you breed the gobblers with the hawks to get a gobbling hawk to catch rabbits AND berries?