What Is the Leather Strap Tied to the Ankle for Falconing?

A bird of prey used for falconry

The sport of falconry involves helping a hunting bird bond to its handler. Most hunting birds are hawks or falcons, because they're smaller raptors and more easily socialized. A number of components used in falconry are particular to the sport, including small straps to keep the bird on the glove.

Terminology

The straps that attach to the ankle of the falcon are called jesses (the singular term is jess). The strap is there to keep the bird tethered to the glove. This isn't to keep the bird from flying away and not returning, but to keep it from going after small game when the owner doesn't want it to. In some ways, the jess is analogous to the breakaway leash on a hunting dog or a retriever, save that a falcon won't see the human as the alpha of the pack and doesn't respond to verbal commands or tone of voice nearly as readily as a dog.

Types

Long lead jesses--long tethers--are designed to keep a large bird of prey tethered to its perch in an aviary or mews. Aviaries and mews are the houses that birds are kept in, and "mews" is the particular term for an enclosure for a hunting bird. Shorter jesses are used to tether the falcon to the falconer.

Traditional Jesses

The traditional jess is a strip of thin leather that has periodic slits through it. The jess is looped around the ankle of the bird, and the extra leather is threaded through the slits. When the bird is released, the leather is pulled from the slits, but the strap itself remains on the ankle of the bird. Hunting jesses are short so that they won't get caught in flight or tangled in prey or objects such as fences and bushes.

Aylmeri Jesses

An Aylmeri jess, invented by Major Guy Aylmer of Great Britai, has two parts. The first part is a loop that's fastened around the ankle of the bird and has a grommet point. The jess itself hooks to the grommet point and coils around it, allowing it to be wound to keep the bird in hand, or uncoiled to allow the bird to be released quickly.

Material

Jesses need to be lightweight, and they need to be sturdy at their thinnest point. The current favored material is leather made from kangaroo hide, due it its combination of light weight and durability. Glove leather and calf leather are also popular materials for jesses. Most hunting birds wear their jesses throughout the falconry season; jesses are removed during the spring moulting period to be serviced and maintained.

References

• The Modern Apprentice: Falconry Jesses