PODCAST · kids
The Avian Behavior Podcast
by Hillary Hankey
If you are into animal behavior and positive reinforcement training, you're in the right spot. World renown animal behavior consultant, falconer, and educator Hillary Hankey dives deep with conversations and case studies on parrots, birds of prey as well as horses, dogs and all kinds of animals on topics of behavior as well as nutrition, ethology, and problem solving.
Episodes
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What to Do When a Bird of Prey Won't Step Up
What should you do when a bird of prey avoids the trainer, flushes during an approach, or will not step onto the glove? Where do you even start with a bird of prey? Before focusing on the step-up, take a closer look at the environment. Housing, perch placement, privacy, approach paths, and...
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From our Owl Ambassador Masterclass: Health and Quarantine Considerations with Your New Owl
This is an excerpt from our Masterclass on How to Raise an Ambassador Owl. We added this lesson after fielding many questions about quarantine procedures, and wanted to ensure that an ambassador owl would still have a viable start to their career in conservation education. Here we cover specific...
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81 The Expert Card
What does it mean to be an expert, and what happens when expertise becomes a shield from scrutiny rather than a commitment to precision? In this episode, Hillary examines the role of authority, rhetoric, and responsibility in professional animal training spaces, especially as conference season...
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80 Mentorship and Falconry with Simone Lupson-Cook and Lauren McGough
This episode is a conversation between friends Simone Lupson-Cook, Lauren McGough, PhD, and Hillary Hankey about what mentorship means to them, growth through falconry over the years, and how to navigate complex relationships. Set on a sunny outdoor deck while casually bird-watching and enjoying...
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79 Transitioning from a traditional to choice based training paradigm
Explore the transition from traditional to choice-based training for ambassador raptors with Hillary Hankey. This professional discussion is a presentation from the 2026 NWRA conference that looks into evolving welfare standards, the science of behavior, and the distinction between coercion and...
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78 Bridging the Gap: What Rehabbers Can Learn from Progressive Bird Training
In this heartfelt and insight-packed episode, Hillary Hankey sits down with winter intern Levi Soucek, a wildlife rehabilitator, educator, and outreach coordinator at the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center. Levi reflects on her transformative 12-week internship at the Avian Behavior Ranch…
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77 Parrot Recall
This is an excerpt from our live parrot recall training, focusing on the pitfalls of over-training and the importance of recall in various scenarios. We share examples of a black palm cockatoo named Jupiter, whose wings were rehabilitated using falconry techniques, and a 24-year-old cockatoo…
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76 Tips for Traveling with Parrots
Traveling long distances with your parrot doesn't have to be stressful. We have moved cross country with our bird family many times. What happens if your bird hates the dark, like one of our palm cockatoos did? What about hotel stays or what supplies to bring while traveling with your parrot?…
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75 Avoidance Behaviors and Weight Management in Birds of Prey
Our Fall 2024 Bird of Prey Workshop focused on key topics such as managing fear and aggression in raptors using the constructional approach and non-coercive negative reinforcement and using progressive weight management techniques. Handling fear-based reactions, like those seen in a juvenile bald...
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74 Training your bird for transportation
Training your bird for transportation isn't just an important part of education programming, it's a good life skill to have. For wildlife rehabilitation organizations, nature centers, and other small bird of prey centers, this is an essential skill that trainers rely on. For companion parrot...
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73 Dr. Stephanie Rosenbloom and the Appeal to Nature Fallacy
Looking to the wild for answers is a common refrain among bird people when it comes to care advice, particularly nutrition. And while this concept seems well grounded in science, the actual practice is much more complex and nuanced. For parrots, we don't always know what, how, or why the eat what...
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72 Why We Value Fly Offs in Free Flight Training
"If you are looking for guarantees with free flight training in birds, you are in the wrong place." In this episode, Avian Behavior International founder Hillary Hankey and ABI Animal Training Lead Katie Pnewski talk about how developing skills for birds and training staff around fly offs has…
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71 Differences in Ambassador Owl Species
Owls make remarkable ambassadors to highlight conservation work, but they can also make for challenging training subjects and divisive ideas in the training community. We have remade our entire Owl Ambassador Masterclass to reflect the nuances among species differences and address some of the...
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70 Ruling the Roost: Managing your needy parrot and your family's happiness
Having a parrot with extremely complicated screaming, attacking, pair-bonded behavior that won't let you out of their sight without an intrusive cascade of undesirable behaviors can be a problem for the entire household. It also means layers of stress when you are torn between appeasing your…
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69 Gail Buhl from the Minnesota Raptor Center and Partners for Wildlife
This interview with Gail Buhl from the Minnesota Raptor Center and Partners for Wildlife is a thoughtful journey filled with raptor behavior tidbits, the evolution of operant conditioning in bird behavior management, raptor rehabilitation, imprinting and so much more. We talk about how working…
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68 Why I don't use ad lib weights or base weights: falconry and free flight birds
We are going to talk about an old school term in weight management of free flying and ambassador birds, and that is ad lib weight. Another term might be trap weight or base weight. Reason why this is old school is that for some people implies your bird has this same reference weight throughout...
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67 What we learned about birds in 2023
What did we learn about birds in 2023? What was the big bird news of the year? (or, Simone and Hillary talk about owls) Hillary sits down with fellow falconer, bird lover, and owl enthusiast Simone Lupson-Cook to talk about our favorite facts about bird behavior, ethology, conservation, and more...
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66 Dr. Lucy Kemp on Lead Poisoning in Ground Hornbills
Lead poisoning is a really big deal for wildlife, and Southern Ground Hornbills appear to be particularly sensitive to lead levels in the blood. In August, Avian Behavior International visited the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project in South Africa to identify some key behavior objectives to enhance…
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65 Developing a student based wildlife training program
We sat down with Paige Sutherland, Director of Wildlife Programs at Shavers Creek Environmental Center in Pennsylvania for a powerful discussion on wildlife training programs. This far ranging conversation stretched from challenges of family life in the animal care field to how to organize your...
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64 Why Your Bird is Attacking You
News flash, if your bird is attacking you, it probably doesn't mean that they hate you. What it does mean is that we have a lot in our relationship to unpack, from environmental conditions to expectations. When parrots in our homes come at us, either from the ground or on the wing, it can be…
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63 Owl Vocalizations and Behavior Karla Bloem of the International Owl Center
Karla Bloem, Executive Director of the International Owl Center in Houston, Minnesota, and Hillary have a fascinating conversation about owl vocalizations and Karla's journey with Great Horned Owl behavior. They discuss owl behavior observation influences, species differences, reinforcement...
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62 Part 2 Are we friends with our birds and other deep questions
Hillary answers more questions from a workshop regarding how to prepare a bird for a program, are we friends with our birds, how to know when you are doing more harm than good and much more. We get philosophical on this one! For more information on our upcoming Advanced Workshop in November 2023,...
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61 Answering Questions About Relationships with Birds of Prey
Hillary answers questions from a workshop regarding do's and don'ts on building relationships with birds of prey, what to do about a kestrel that attacks the bait bag, weight managing owls, and more. For more information on our upcoming Advanced Workshop in November 2023, check out this page for...
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60 World Renown Aviculturist Dick Schroeder on Ground Hornbills
We sit down with good friend and well known aviculturist Dick Schroeder to talk about what we can learn about working with the Southern ground hornbill in a variety of different ways. Dick is a celebrated member of the avicultural community, he has raised numerous hornbill species, including over…
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Raising a Well-Socialized Owl
Our two favorite subjects, owls and raising ambassadors. Owls are considered flagship species, which means that while they may not necessarily be directly endangered, they are species chosen to raise support for biodiversity conservation in a given place or social context. This means that due to...
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58 Are LIMA and the humane hierarchy still serving your bird training?
We are going to be talking about how LIMA (least intrusive, minimally aversive) and the humane hierarchy structure stopped serving me in my animal behavior progress, what got me there, and how I help my clients instead. We take a HUGE look at how it's not uncommon in science for us to wittingly…
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Building Trust with a Nervous Non-Releasable Raven
In this session of our Behavior Makeover Series, we work with a rehabilitated non-releasable raven that is showing a lot of avoidance behavior around his trainer. We create a behavior shaping plan using non-coercive negative reinforcement instead of counter conditioning or systematic...
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Dr. Scott Echols DVM DABVP Part 3: Exercise, Osteoporosis, and Foraging
In this final part of our series with Dr. Scott Echols, board certified avian veterinarian, we cover A LOT of ground in terms of avian health and welfare. If you want the straight science about how to get your bird exercising, even in terms of rehabilitated wildlife, diet management, and...
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Challenges Facing Rehabilitated Education Birds of Prey
Working with rehabilitated birds of prey as education ambassadors is rewarding work, but it can be fraught with challenges as well. From working with unruly (and opinionated!) audiences to dealing with heartbreaking avian losses and health issues, it can feel thankless at times. In this episode…
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The Problem Solving Paradigm: Learn the scientific mindset to solve your toughest bird behavior challenges
The Problem Solving Paradigm teaches you how to manage really complex and sometimes uncontrollable variables when trying to train your bird, so you actually can realize real change. Because let's just be honest here - trying to train new skills in a busy household or work environment is REALLY...
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Dr. Scott Echols: Bridging New Frontiers in Avian Wellness with Technology
Board certified avian veterinarian Dr. Scott Echols discusses some pretty intense concepts in veterinary and wellness technology. He covers how new technology is discovering diseases we never even knew existed and how we are able to diagnose and treat them. We also talk about how CT scans are…
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Bonus: Interview with The Rossifari Podcast
Bonus release from our earlier interview with Jon Rossi of the Rossifari Podcast. We talk free flight training and how it relates to our leadership philosophies, being a woman in leadership, bird nerdin' and so much more. You can check out our swapped episode on mentorship on Jon's Rossifari...
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Do you use food to train your parrot?
Using food as a contrived reinforcer to train our parrots is often fraught with emotions and tension. And not without good reason. But we can discuss the differences in contrived reinforcement and natural reinforcement and how both are important components in building strong relationships and...
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Training Free Lofted Birds of Prey
Training free lofted birds of prey can be an incredibly enriching program for trainer and bird, but it can also lead to an unnecessarily protracted program that brings all parties a lot of stress. Bird of prey trainers that are interested in this type of training need to assess a number of...
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Keeping the Science in Animal Care with Barbara Heidenreich
Why does science in animal care matter? My bestie Barbara Heidenreich and I sit down - this time in person - for a conversation about what it actually means to be scientific in animal care and behavior. And why that's important. We talk about natural behavior, species differences, the...
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Are you a falconer or a petkeeper?
ICYMI, petkeeper is a derogatory term in a niche community like falconry. This episode explores the roots of some falconry disagreements and why it's so important to find a supportive community that fosters curiosity and an ethical training paradigm that fits you and your bird's needs....
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The Constructional Approach to Animal Welfare and Training with Maasa Nishimuta and Sean Will
Whoa baby, y'all, this is another incredible interview that gives you a whole 'nother paradigm to the think about in animal training. Let's blow the lid off of the way we think of operant conditioning and dive deep with Maasa Nishimuta and Sean Will of CAAWT, or the Constructional Approach to...
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Dr. Scott Echols DVM DABVP and the Dietary Supplements for Birds
Our second interview with Dr. Scott Echols, Diplomat- ABVP - Avian Specialty, nutrition expert, and, geez, there so many epithets we can tag on here. In this episode, we talk about avian dietary supplements, Omega-3 fatty acids, the ol' pellets versus raw diet debate, and a few other questions...
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What Matters When Training an Owl Ambassador
Owl ambassadors can be tough to train, but in our opinion, so worth it. They are powerful conservation ambassadors for myriad of topics. We topic about two key things that we look at when we set ourselves up to train an owl ambassador. Our Owl Ambassador Masterclass gets really deep on this...
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44 Rebroadcast How to stop your bird from screaming when you leave the room
Screaming is a big deal when you live with parrots, and boy do we know it. We just dropped the final lessons of our Screaming Masterclass in the Avian Behavior Lab. Eleven meaty lessons and worksheets filled with in depth how-to's and comprehensive approaches to this issue. We get you started in...
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43 How Murphy's Law Can Improve Your Animal Training
What do trials for human's capacity for G force have to do with animal training? Turns out, the alleged beginnings of Murphy's law at Edwards Air Force Base in California by Colonel Stapp's team had its beginnings not in pessimism but practicality. Our episode explores how we can use this mindset...
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42 Special needs and Aggressive Parrots with Melanie Canatella
In our interview with self-proclaimed bird nerd and parrot lover, Melanie Canatella, Founder of Fluff and Feathers, we chat about working with birds with special needs and creating a more harmonious environment and relationship with them. This is an in-depth conversation about how minimizing fear...
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41. The What's and the Why's of Animal Training Mentorships
Animal training mentors, role models, and teachers can be incredibly impactful for our growth. This was a concept I actively sought when I knew I wanted to learn as much as I possibly could about animal behavior.We talk about: Is a mentor a necessity or a luxury? What to look for in a mentor/role...
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40 What's the best way to train a bird of prey?
How do you train your dragon? If you have been on the earth for a hot minute, you know that everyone has an opinion for how you need to train the bird of prey in your care. Let's go over the methods, well most of them. Or some of them. We analyze the environmental conditions that inform our...
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What are the Fundamentals of Animal Training?
In this episode, we talk about how our training ethos shapes every interaction we forge with the birds in our care. There are some great ways that we can build our foundation through a firm understanding of the animal training fundamentals, so let's get into it! How do you start training before…
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38 Bird Training Stories Part 2: Force Free Veterinary Training, Practical Application of CAT, and More!
In Part 2 of our live recording of our podcast from MemberFest 2021, we cover some serious ground! We talk about aspergillosis and the importance of force free veterinary training, field a few questions about training with negative reinforcement and the constructional approach, and end up with a...
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Bird Training Stories with Katie, Paige and Hillary Part 1
It's our Avian Behavior Lab MemberFest 2021, celebrating the second anniversary of our online animal behavior and training membership platform. We did a live podcast with our members, telling training challenges and success stories, plus things we have learned, putting everything into...
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On curiosity, leadership and evolution as an animal trainer with Dani Poirier Larson
You can't tell anyone to be curious, you can show them, you can inspire them, and you can lead with humility and grace That's what Dani Poirier Larson of the Southwick Zoo shows, the spirit she embodies and shows her team. Dani's words are so powerful and ring so true for a behavior enthusiast…
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How Our Animals Handle the Pandemic
Animal behavior sure does love routine. But what happens when that routine changes and is beyond our control? What about those changes that affect our mental well-being and then transfer on the way we work with our animals and fellow animal lovers? We talk about the three different ways this...
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What to do when your bird picks favorites
Everyone has preferences, and our birds and other animals are no different. From African Greys to Turkey Vultures, the birds that we work with make no bones about it when they have chosen a favorite. Sometimes it is harmless and other times it can be downright dangerous. We talk about strategies...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
If you are into animal behavior and positive reinforcement training, you're in the right spot. World renown animal behavior consultant, falconer, and educator Hillary Hankey dives deep with conversations and case studies on parrots, birds of prey as well as horses, dogs and all kinds of animals on topics of behavior as well as nutrition, ethology, and problem solving.
HOSTED BY
Hillary Hankey
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Avian Behavior Podcast have?
The Avian Behavior Podcast currently has 83 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Avian Behavior Podcast about?
If you are into animal behavior and positive reinforcement training, you're in the right spot. World renown animal behavior consultant, falconer, and educator Hillary Hankey dives deep with conversations and case studies on parrots, birds of prey as well as horses, dogs and all kinds of animals on...
How often does The Avian Behavior Podcast release new episodes?
The Avian Behavior Podcast has 83 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Avian Behavior Podcast?
You can listen to The Avian Behavior Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Avian Behavior Podcast?
The Avian Behavior Podcast is created and hosted by Hillary Hankey.
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