About us
Avian Heritage is a falconry business based near Abergele in North Wales, offering guided hawk walks, private bird of prey experiences and educational visits. It is run by falconer Wayne Davis, with Iva managing bookings and enquiries.
The people
Falconer
Wayne Davis is the falconer behind Avian Heritage. He has worked with birds of prey for more than 40 years.
Wayne provides the falconry expertise and the birds for Avian Heritage experiences and educational visits, and decides on the day what is right for each bird.
Bookings & enquiries
Iva manages bookings, website enquiries and customer communication for Avian Heritage. She is your first point of contact, and will talk through your enquiry and confirm the practical details with you.
Falconry in practice
Our birds
Our birds are individuals, each with their own name, species and needs. Which birds join a particular experience or visit is confirmed individually, and always depends on the bird.
Harris's hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus)
Harris's hawks are native to the Americas and are unusual among birds of prey because they hunt cooperatively in family groups — the reason they are sometimes called the “wolves of the sky”. They are one of the hawks most widely flown in British falconry.
Peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus)
In its hunting dive, or stoop, the peregrine is the fastest animal on Earth, with speeds of over 200 mph recorded. Wild peregrines nest on sea cliffs and crags across Wales, and increasingly on tall buildings in towns and cities.
Gyrfalcon × saker falcon
Minerva is a hybrid of two large falcons: the gyrfalcon, the largest falcon in the world, and the saker falcon, valued by falconers in Central Asia and the Middle East for its strength and endurance.
Merlin (Falco columbarius)
The merlin is the UK's smallest bird of prey. In Britain, wild merlins breed mainly on upland moorland — including the hills of Wales — and are known for fast, low, agile flight.
Our welfare principle
Bird participation and flying are always subject to the individual bird, welfare considerations, weather, environmental conditions and suitability on the day.
In practice, that means a bird may rest instead of fly, a session may be adapted at short notice, and a different bird may take part than the one you expected. We'd always rather explain a change than ask a bird to do something that isn't right for it.
Avian Heritage offers falconry experiences and educational bird of prey visits for individuals, families, schools and organisations in North Wales.
Professional bird mitigation for commercial and heritage sites is a separate service. If that's what you're looking for, please visit Avian Environmental UK.
Enquire about a hawk walk, a private experience or a school visit.
