I have always advocated that Falconry would be an acceptable and beautiful alternative to pest control.
Just park a ranger with a falcon, no more birds bothering your crops.
I have a few friends that do this, and I've considered it myself... It's a great way to abate birds in select instances, but it's very time and labor intensive, expensive, and complicated.
For the most part, it's used to abate birds form airports, orchards, and areas like bridges, parking garages, landfills, etc.
One of the complicating factors is that we cannot use native raptors for abatement in the US; we need to import (or purchase captive bred) non-native or exotic birds or hybrids. Another complicating factor is that many of the birds that you want to abate are protected, and cannot be hunted. You need the raptor to chase with "intent" to convince the target birds it's in their best interest to leave, but you don't actually want your birds to catch the target birds. The target birds can tell in a micro-second whether or not the raptor has "intent", and therefore whether or not it is a threat. If they couldn't tell, a RC drone could be used at much less effort and cost.
Also, in a case like at an airport, it's only effective in the very immediate area. The passenger plane that landed in the Hudson river hit those geese several miles outside of the airport; far outside the effective protection abatement may have offered.
It's almost never (if ever) going to be a park ranger doing it.
The birds of prey are the finest and most beautiful animals on this planet. Yes there are debates about humans using them as weapons. They also get companionship from humans and bred with a family. These birds get a really good deal. Its the poor unfortunate pigeons, rabbits, mice and ducks and so forth that get in the way of said bird that should be worried.
But there a billions of them, and falcon numbers are starting to dwindle.
I agree with you on the beauty factor; there isn't anything on the planet that compares with them. "Weapon" is a misnomer, and "companionship" is quite a stretch too, but I won't delve into that. As far as a "good deal", you're correct for the individual birds involved (falconry has zero impact on wild populations though). Roughly 65% of raptors perish before reaching the ripe old age of one. In falconry mortality is reduced to roughly 5%. If they get sick or injured they go to the vet. If they fail to succeed in hunting they still get fed...
Raptor populations in the US are doing fairly well overall. Birds like the peregrine and bald eagle have been brought back from the brink of extinction to levels where they're no longer even considered threatened! We now have peregrines nesting right in our cities! Much of that success can be directly attributed to falconers.
Threats still loom however, but not from/through falconry. If the numbers can be believed, wind turbines may be killing enough golden eagles to ensure that they cannot breed fast enough to survive long-term. It would be a shame if our "green" energy sources led to (or contributed greatly to) the extinction of birds like that. Power poles kill massive numbers of raptors annually. Habitat loss is still the number one threat by far.
Falconry is illegal in my country unfortunately, because it is something I would really love to do.
Australia, by chance?
