On the 23rd, we made the journey up into an obscure valley a little further around the lake in order to see one of Kyrgyzstan’s national traditions: falconry. Although to be honest, falconry isn’t the correct term, since the Kyrgyz don’t hunt with falcons. They hunt with Golden Eagles. They are one of the only cultures in the world to do this, likely because Golden Eagles aren’t so good at hunting in anywhere other than open spaces. Luckily, Kyrgyzstan has no shortage of those.
In both Kyrgyz and Russian, Golden Eagles are called Berkut (with the stress on the e), and their handler a Berkutchik. The berkutchik who was showing us the ropes was named Beren, and as far as I can tell, he spoke almost no Russian. He certainly chose not to speak any over the course of the time we spent with him. He is a fourth-generation berkutchik, and according to the information I found online, one of only 300-400 berkutchiks in the world. According to him, a large percentage of the Kyrgyz people used to be berkutchiks before Kyrgyzstan’s assimilation into the Russian Empire and, later, USSR.
He also said that a good berkut could feed a family of four. The eagle we got to see had won a prize in a falconry contest last year, and having watched it fly and hunt, I can see how one of these things could be an efficient source of food. They can take down all sorts of small game and birds, and, according to him, small deer. I’m still not sure I believe him, but also having held the thing, I can vouch for it being large enough and strong enough to be a nuisance to most anything it wanted to.
We ended up getting to watch this particular eagle hunt a very unfortunate rabbit. Golden Eagles are part of a subgroup of birds known for having very strong legs and claws, and it showed. The eagle flew in toward the rabbit, missed it by a few inches, but then chased it down at full speed on foot. It then started eating it right there on the ground, which was a little more graphic than I was super ready for on a Thursday morning.
After it had eaten its fill, we got a chance to hold it. Here you can see myself and then Iliaz, our cultural manager, getting to hold all 10-ish pounds of it. It was a big, big bird.
Below, you can see a few photos I took of the mountain valley we were located in.
Nate in Bishkek 2021 
I had lunch with my bud KT and was trying to describe how the use of Russian vs Kyrgyz by the kids differed, and he “got” it immediately by saying Kyrgyz was used by the “farmers”
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