Birds of prey commonly known as raptors, are carnivores meaning that they prey on other animals. Their best weapon of choice is by no doubt their feet and talons, which can knock down the prey with a single jolt to the neck. However, they have a sharp beak that is used to tear to bits their catch of the day.

Raptors can be put into two specific categories, the Diurnal and Nocturnal. The diurnal will hunt during the day, whilst the nocturnal are adapted to hunt mostly during the night. Diurnal species include several species such hawks, eagles, buzzards, harriers, kites, vultures, and falcons. On the other hand, nocturnal species include the commonly known owls, and barn owls.

Being a very successful hunter the human thought that by getting closer and bonding with a bird of prey, will award both the bird and human with food. Thus the human decided to ‘tame’ birds of prey and trying to find out what is the best one to hunt specific quarry.

The Fridericus Rex Malta Falconers was established on 24th September 2008 with the aim of raising awareness and educate the public about the magnificence of birds of prey. In order to form the club, help was given by the I.A.F. (International Association for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey). The I.A.F. sent Mr. Anthony Crosswell as their representative, who was instrumental in the club’s early stages. The visit of Mr. Crosswell was sponsored by the government.

During the eight years since the club has been formed, the achievement was sometimes more than what we expected. Briefly looking into our past, we can say that we are the first established falconry club in Malta who revived falconry after the valorous Knights of the order of St. John. Currently we are twenty members with great potential of increasing in number. Amongst those members we have novice members and more experienced falconers, and also a female falconer who most probably is the only lady that has ever flown a peregrine falcon (Maltese Falcon) in a very good way in the Maltese history. One of the new members is also another female falconer who flies a first year Harris hawk with great success.

During these years we participated in many events most of them being educational, by attending to several schools and by being in public with our birds, such as charity fund raising events, and awareness events. Moreover we participate as well in worldwide organised events. The first event of this kind was the Vulture Awareness Day, more recently, World Falconry Day and the latest addition is the Mongolian School Link Program. In the days to come we are going to help with our expertise, in bird of prey reintroduction programs in Malta.

As full members of the I.A.F. we were invited to represent Malta twice in an international falconry festival in the Middle East, the first time in 2011 and the other in 2014 and also were present in an international vet conference again in the Middle East in 2013.

Unlike other countries which continued with the tradition of falconry, we had to start everything from scratch and from these events we gained lots of experience as we were among the world’s top falconers, breeders, rehabilitators, vets and so on. Although with some difficulties our aim as a club is to maintain falconry at the highest possible standard with the dream that one day not only promote our club and country by the word 'falconry' but to have high quality birds that will honour us all. This can be achieved only by great sacrifice, patience, and collaboration from everyone.

Falconry in Malta has been in practice since the times of the Knights of St. John. The tradition was to give 2 falcons per year to the King of Sicily, and it was the origin of the term Maltese Falcon, commonly known as the Peregrine Falcon.

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