Policy paper

Taking birds of prey from the wild for falconry and aviculture: outcome of review

Outcome of a review into the licensing of ‘wild take’ – the taking of birds of prey from the wild for the purpose of falconry and aviculture.

From:
Natural England
Published
6 March 2025

Applies to England

Documents

Summary of Natural England’s position on wild take licensing for falconry and aviculture

HTML

Natural England licensing review: Wild take of birds of prey policy options for falconry and aviculture

PDF, 479 KB, 33 pages

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Details

Natural England has completed a review of wild take licensing for falconry and aviculture, with support from Defra.

The summary document explains:

  • what we did and why
  • the outcome and our advice to Defra
  • Defra’s decision and what this means for licensing

The review document contains our advice to Defra including:

  • objectives
  • methodology
  • findings
  • recommendations

Note that some information in the review document has been redacted where we’ve applied exceptions under the Environmental Information Regulations.

You can also read a blog post about the review of wild take licensing.

Review process evidence

The following evidence informed the review process:

Updates to this page

Published 6 March 2025

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