Parahawking Is When Birds of Prey Teach Humans How to Fly

Nowadays, humans take to the sky in all sorts of contraptions, and they do so routinely. They fly in airplanes and helicopters, they dangle from parachutes, they shoot through the sky in wingsuits or fall down at the end of elastic ropes.

About two decades ago, a new way of flying was developed: parahawking. It involves paragliding, an activity that isn't exactly new, but pairs it with falconry. Yes, falconry, that human activity that calls for wild animals to be hunted with birds of prey.

This idea first came into the mind of someone in the early 2000s, somewhere in Nepal. That guy, falconer Scott Mason, thought of how cool it would be to train eagles and such to guide paragliders through the air.

The concept is simple: you take a bird of prey, and instead of teaching it to hunt, you teach it how to guide paragliders to the best thermals in a given area. For all intents and purposes, it is the only way one can fly so close to a bird, as all other ways of flying we mentioned earlier try to avoid winged creatures at all costs.

The idea quickly caught on among lovers of extreme sports, birds, and hunting, and even expanded beyond the borders of Nepal, becoming a real tourist attraction in places like Spain or California. The success and rapid expansion of the sport were brief, though, as concerns for the wellbeing of wild birds pushed it into illegal territory.

At the time of writing, one of the largest such operations in Europe, the Parahawking Project, is listed as permanently closed due to “illogical restrictions placed upon us by the Spanish Government.”

Over in Cali, though, Fly With a Bird still seems to be active, and is asking $400 for a 25-minute flight with a paraglider, a falconer, and a falcon or some other such beast, over the cliffs of La Jolla.

Stay tuned for a more extensive coverage of parahawking soon.