Raptor Foundation — Attraction in Huntingdonshire

We went to the Raptor Foundation with a group of two families with children aged 3, 5 and 8. We had been before when the children were younger.

Overall it was a good day and we enjoyed the experience but my advice would be that this is an experience that works better for older children.

The RF has a number of cages in which you can see the impressive birds sitting and chilling out... That is completely normal and what we'd expect to see but it does mean the action is limited and tested the attention span of the younger children. The birds come in all shapes and sizes and are inspiring.

Make sure you plan for the demonstration sessions to get the most from the trip overall. These are keepers talking about the birds and scheduled flying demonstrations where the birds swoop past the crowd.

Although these are impressive they can feel like too much talking for some children as they are birds who can decide to just ignore the encouragement to perform. The stories being told were also at times pitched a little bit more mature than I would have liked for the 4 year old in terms of overall banter.

There is also a small Meerkat colony and some reptiles including tourtoises, lizards, snakes and frogs.

Trigger Alert:. If you or your children are at all squeamish then you might get an eyeful here. The raptors eat meat and if you are there at feeding time you will see them being either swallowed whole or torn apart spilling juices everywhere. Think Jurassic park but with clearly identifiable day old chicks... For my kids this was a highlight but you're responsible for your own.

For the younger ones there are a couple of activity areas. The small park was in need of an upgrade (currently being planned) and had some interactive things like "check your wingspan" against other birds. There was also a section on extinct (Dino)birds which was a favourite with the 5 year old but these are not highly interactive.

There's a tearoom and giftshop as well (on the way in so manage expectations...) and an educational room but that was a lot of looking unless you were a bit older.

I'm definitely not being negative - overall I'm glad we have this to visit. However I think you have to go with a realistic expectation of what expect to avoid frustration and understand it works better in my opinion for older kids. With a few developments I'm sure it would look after children better, but ultimately it is there to look after birds and for that the motivated and caring team clearly...

Spent a very pleasant few hours here with my 3 children (7, 14, 17). The chap running it obviously loves the animals, and is very knowledgable about them, happy to talk, and engaging the children well. The flying display with the owls was fabulous. Nothing like a European Eagle owl flying so low over your heads you feel the wind from the wings! 😁 They could possibly do with a small PA system as when the chap turned away to go to the other end of the audience, you didn't hear what he was saying. You're welcome to take your own food, but there is a tea room there where you can pre-order light lunches for after the flying display, which works well. Sausage rolls, panins, sandwiches, and jacket potatoes all available. There is a small Education Centre with a few activities inside which is ok, but does feel a little tired. For example, there are 3 chunky bird puzzles to make, but the kookaburra one was missing a few pieces, and the colouring table could do with some coloured pencils and a sharpener, as opposed to the chunky wax crayons. My youngest enjoyed lifting the weighted bags to guess which bird equalled the weight, and he liked the feather display. The huge Connect 4 game kept my 3 entertained for a good half an hour, though! This place is good for a quiet outing. Tickets can be pre-booked, and online there are a maximum of 100 available for the morning, and 100 for the afternoon. When we went, there were approximately 40-50 people in total. For the first time since opening, it is full of animals, with 200 birds, a few tortoises, 3 meerkats, and a few tanks in the reptile house. Well worth a visit, and will happily occupy 3-4 hours with ease. Flying displays are at 12, 1400, and 1600, each lasting around...

I will keep coming back over and over again to The Raptor Foundation. It's not only an amazing afternoon out, but you can tell those that work there are not only incredibly knowledgeable of the creatures they work with (not only health-wise, but also personality-wise), but love what they do and the birds, reptiles, insects, and meerkats themselves.

The staff are always very friendly and remember return visitors. I am so happy to hear that they received the grants that they have recently because, with them being a not-for-profit and with the effects COVID-19, many months they had to remain closed but still care for and support the animals they rehabilitate and house (there is a bird hospital on-site for the birds and raptors brought in by the public that they help to rehabilitate, if they have the means).

Updates have begun, which is wonderful to see, and the layout feels like it will be much more fluid. I'm looking very forward to seeing the new habitats as they slowly go up and are built.

Also, I must state, the addition of the kookaburras was such a warm and welcomed sight. They're such lovely, happy birds, so it honestly just brightened my day to see the pairing of the male with a female that they had been hoping to get for quite some time.

If you would like a marvellous, inexpensive afternoon (I cannot recommend the annual pass for about £33 for a family of 4), pop in and check them out and support the animals...