AbstractThis article explores social relationships of birds and humans through the processes of imprinting and courtship rituals in the domestic breeding of birds of prey. The material presented is based on original ethnographic fieldwork among falconers, breeders, and birds, largely in the United Kingdom. The article focuses on the interspecies sociality and agency that emerges from the situated practices of bird breeding. It is argued, through ethnographic examples, that conventional determinist understandings of imprinting do not accurately capture the more porous and flexible ways in which living beings learn to relate to others and their environments.