Author’s note: I have been a volunteer at the Cascades Raptor Center since June 2024.
As we ease into summer and class schedules lighten, it’s important to make time for yourself.
With a student discount and free admission for those on EBT, the Cascades Raptor Center, located in Eugene, is the perfect place to visit. It’s a charming location nestled in rich Pacific Northwest native flora, offering shade from the unrelenting summer heat.
Every spring and summer the trainers at the center put on a flight show with a few select birds from the ambassador team, making up what is called the free-flight team.
I have enjoyed tens of these shows and can tell you no one is exactly alike.
Q&A with Sidney Campbell, CRC Ambassador Curator:
Sidney Campbell has been working at the Cascades Raptor Center since April 2022 and is currently the ambassador curator (ambassadors are the birds that, for one reason or another, live full-time at the center and are out for guests to see). She is a talented, experienced trainer and, speaking from personal experience, an excellent teacher.
When did you get into training animals? Have you always wanted to work with birds?
My uncle was an elephant trainer at the San Diego Zoo when I was growing up, and I always wanted to grow up to be like him. I always imagined I would work with large carnivores like cats or canids, and instead I found myself with large predatory birds.
What’s your favorite thing about running the flight shows?
There is a lot that I love about the flight show. First and foremost, flying birds outside is the apex of our goal to reduce our intrusiveness and increase their autonomy. They’re making choices and using their bodies the way they evolved to. Second, I love all the moving pieces and finding an efficient way to see that they all get put in the right place to make the show happen – there are so many details behind the scenes to make it look like magic to the audience. I love controlled chaos.
What’s the process of teaching a bird a new behavior like?
Training a new behavior is different for every bird and every behavior, but it is broken down into pieces.
I like to teach it as the ABCs – A is for antecedent, the environmental conditions that precede a behavior. Arranging antecedents is everything from setting up furniture and props to make a behavior easy and the timing of a session to ensure motivation.
B is for behavior, the actual observable thing that the bird is doing. We have a goal behavior that is always framed as what we want the bird to do (rather than what we want them not to do).
C is for consequence, the result that follows the behavior. We provide desirable consequences (tasty snacks) to let the bird know they did the thing and increase the likelihood that they will do it again. Using the ABCs, we break down the baby step toward the goal behavior!
Do you have a favorite bird?
My “favorite” is generally whoever is learning the coolest thing at the time. I love each individual bird for everything about who they are, but my biggest passion is behavior so whoever presents the coolest behavioral puzzle at the time tends to be my crush.
Lastly, a question you get a lot. Why don’t the birds just fly away?
“Why don’t the birds just fly away?” is one of my favorite questions because the answer is another question: why would they? All of their needs are met right here – they have food, safety, trusting relationships, etc. so why would they be motivated to leave? They may sometimes be interested in exploring their environment or frightened away by something unexpected, but they always return because they are intrinsically motivated to earn the consequences they earn here.
Meet the Team:
Photos by Cascades Raptor Center and Jesse Pline.
Kali the Turkey Vulture
Kali does a great job of representing her species in the show by “foraging” from a cow skull. She was quite scared of this skull when she first started learning to do this behavior. Campbell explains: “Turkey vultures are notoriously neophobic! Introducing Kali to the cow skull we hoped to train her to scavenge from took a long time, most of which was spent slowly acclimating her to the existence of the skull.”
Neophobic means afraid of new things. While many would think vultures would be innately comfortable with a dead object, they are actually quite cautious.
“It was scary [to Kali], so we started very small and gave her all the control over being able to get away from it,” said Campbell. “She got paid a lot of snacks for being brave and learning to approach it. Now she’s so fearless she climbs on top of it without being asked.”
This charismatic vulture is quite the character.
Guillermo the Aplomado Falcon
As the smallest and youngest of the Free-Flight Team, Guillermo has some big talons to fill. But don’t let his size fool you; this little bird has a big personality matched only by his own boyish good looks. Guillermo is an agile flyer and is currently learning to catch food in the air, a behavior his wild counterparts engage in.
Little Guillermo was raised by the staff at Cascades Raptor Center hand since he was hatched, and was the first bird Campbell got the chance to raise. “He learned how to fly all on his own, although I encouraged him to stretch his wings, and watching that process was my favorite part of the process,” she said.
Hans the Eurasian Eagle-owl
Hans is a freight train of an owl, weighing in at just about 4 pounds. It might not sound too impressive, but Eurasian eagle-owls are the world’s largest by weight. He has deep orange eyes and long tufts on the top of his head called plumicorns. Hans is one of three resident birds at the raptor center who are not native to North America.
During his segment of the show as he flies over the crowd, Hans shows off his incredible comfort with getting close to guests. No matter how much room he would give people at the beginning of his career, people would always duck, so now he expects it. When recounting a favorite show moment, Campbell said, “The funniest thing Hans has done in show is probably the time he flew so low that he knocked someone’s hat off.”
You may be better off ducking on your visit.
Padawan the American Barn Owl
Padawan is a beautiful barn owl who gets to show off his incredible skills during the flight show. His heart-shaped face isn’t for aesthetic purposes. This feature funnels sounds towards the owl’s ears; one ear is higher than the other. Barn owls also have extra soft wings, allowing them to be practically silent.
Padawan is quite the chatterbox, which would dampen his effectiveness as a hunter in the wild.
“Padawan, like most of the birds on our team, was raised by humans,” said Campbell. “That’s why he doesn’t exhibit a typical, healthy fear response to humans and also why he talks so much! Wild baby barn owls make that sound to beg for food from their parents. When they start learning to hunt on their own, they naturally quiet down – if they remained loud they would scare away all their prey!”
Cascades Raptor Center is a dual-function facility; on the public side guests can visit the birds, see programming, flight shows, and biofact tables, while behind the scenes wild raptors get the medical care they need. The Louise Shimmel Wildlife Hospital sees upwards of 400 patients every year, helping to get these important birds back into the wild where they can do their jobs.
This time of year many see baby birds who they think may have been abandoned. It is always important to talk to professionals before making any contact. If you encounter injured wildlife, please consult with a professional rehabilitator to get instructions before intervening. In the Albany/Corvallis area, we are closest to Chintimini Wildlife Center who can be reached at 541-745-5324. Rehabilitators at Cascades Raptor Center can be reached at 541-485-1320, extension 2.
Find out more about Cascades Raptor Center, the Louise Shimmel Wildlife Hospital, and more at cascadesraptorcenter.org.
This article originally appeared in the May 2025 edition of The Commuter.
