Learning Not to Fly - Eric F. Frazier

Seeing a bird with a 10-foot wingspan learning to live in a fenced enclosure—learning not to fly—is a bittersweet experience. You know the saying—fish gotta swim; birds gotta fly.

But at Carolina Raptor Center, an avian hospital and zoo in Huntersville, N.C., most of the eagles, falcons, hawks, owls, vultures and non-raptors are rescued native birds that cannot be returned safely to the wild. Others are endangered non-native species being raised for conservation purposes. All must adapt to a flightless life in captivity.

_{This Swainson’s Hawk alternated between contemplating and calling out to the gawking visitors. About the size of a Red-tailed Hawk but with longer wings, these birds live mostly in the western United States and Canada.}
_{^{Captured April 19, 2025, by Eric F. Frazier. Canon R5m2, RF200-800mm, 800mm, f16, 0ev, 1/80s, ISO16000, handheld.}}

During a recent visit, I found a few birds listless, seemingly bored or traumatized, sometimes facing the back of a wooden enclosure. But most of the 30 or so birds seemed to welcome human interaction. They perked up on approach. The most lively, a Mississippi Kite, flew in circles and performed a sort of step-dance on its perch.

Carolina Raptor Center calls the birds housed along its Raptor Trail “avian ambassadors” and brings some out of their enclosures for scheduled talks at an outdoor stage. Either way, stage or trail, the center is a great way to get up close to birds usually seen only through binoculars or a long zoom lens.

How Should Captive Wildlife Be Portrayed?

In fact, a long lens is useful to photograph caged birds. With the right light, focal length, and luck, you can make the cage bars practically disappear or seem to move behind the subject in focus. The problem becomes stepping back far enough to get the whole bird in the frame, which the edge of the trail sometimes prevented. For a Barn Owl, I captured a head shot where the chain links almost evaporate completely.

But as I worked my way along the enclosures, I concluded that these birds should be photographed in their true context. That means clearly showing the way they live in captivity, which includes the bars—which can be made less oppressive but never completely disappear.