I've been doing some research about sports and pastimes in the Elizabethan Era and I came to realize hawking / falconry was quite common. I was wondering if I could have some clarification about the domestication which I could find anywhere else.
One website states:
This sport involved catching wild fowl, and then was domesticated by covering the bird’s eyes with a needle and a strand of fiber, so the hawker could open and close its eyes. This made it very easy to domesticate the fowl so that it could hunt other birds.
But I couldn't find any others to back this up nor explain why they would do this. If anyone could further explain the reasoning, or tell me how the hawks were domesticated that would be great, thanks!
American falconer here with, like most falconers, an interest in historical falconry.
Training wild caught birds of prey involves careful manipulation of stimuli. The method you are talking about did indeed exist in Elizabethan England (and before). It was to sew up the eyelids of newly-trapped falcons in the beginning of their training and gradually loosen the threads and open up their vision again.
The first known treatise on falconry is The Art of Falconry, circa. ~1240s, by Emperor Frederick II- who is essentially our Western patron saint of falconry, all other historical regards aside.
On page 146 of the English translation he describes this method and the advantages it afforded in terms of overall health of the falcon and effectiveness of training methods. He is personally specific in pointing out that this is simply a recount of the thus-far established popular method.
Starting at page 205, Frederick II goes on to extensively describe hoods- the little leather helmets/hats/masks that you see used on birds today- and how to make/use them instead of sewing the eyelids. At this time in falconry history hoods were just making their way West, and it's entirely possible that Emperor Frederick II was responsible for popularizing their use. He was, at the very least, an early adopter who saw great potential when visiting Arabia.
Gradually hood technology replaced needle-and-thread. Both methods serve as a means of limiting the vision of a fresh bird during training to keep it calm, but as Frederick points out, you don't risk permanently blinding your bird when you use a hood...so here we are.