I think it's more popular in the Southwest USA. They track their birds with little telemetry collars similar to our hunting dog equipment.
SO what if you are pimping this "furious falcon" on your shoulder like your pimp and it gets scared and wiggs out and starts freaking out and flapping its wings while on your shoulder.. what do you do.. Just run through the woods with a furious falcon flapping its wings against your head while running through the woods? lol.. I can so picture that.
I believe they keep them hooded so they don't freak out like that. I like the "pimping" idea though, imagine walking into the bar with the furious falcon on your shoulder, got to be a total chick magnet!!
When I worked at Wellcraft we had a lady come in for few nights with her red-tailed hawk and they put a hurting on the pigeons that had taken up residence in the factory. Those pigeons were leaving :crap: all over the boats, costing them lots of labor in clean-up. After that hawk was let loose a few times, those pigeons relocated! She must have killed a dozen or so pigeons. Plus the lady handling her was picking off several a night with a very nice pellet gun. I bet they paid her pretty well to do that, too.
