White Mountain Nature Center — Attraction in Arizona

We missed our first chance to see the Raptor Training show a month ago because we did not know you need to book your tickets well in advance. Fortunately we had planned a return trip to the White Mountains for a few days around Labor Day. Tickets are $5.00 and are purchased online. We arrived early for the show and found inexpensive and appropriate small gifts we will take on our upcoming trip to visit our grandchildren. The waiting room for the Raptor show is large and has many interesting exhibits including animal pelts that you are invited to touch. The staff is friendly and explain some of what to expect in the show. Photography (no flash) is encouraged. As others had said in reviews, you are ushered into the training facility where you set on bleachers with no barriers between you and the birds. The volunteer trainers are well versed in the habits of the birds and use humane training methods that depend entirely on food rewards. We saw owl, hawk, turkey vulture, crow, and falcon each display their beauty, intelligence, and flight skills. The show is about an hour, and you learn a lot about these magnificent birds. The facility also has and eagle and some other birds that were not featured in the show we attended. The facility is very clean and modern. In fact, while the birds are in the show ring, other volunteers are cleaning the bird's housing area. This is an unforgettable experience and some of the birds fly low over the audience to reach food held by trainers on either side of the rear of the bleachers. Children are welcome when accompanied by an adult and remain seated as required of all...

We loved the raptor show so much we went again the next day! And I would go again in a heartbeat! Tickets were only $2.50 per person in the off season and the show was really great. We learned so much and enjoyed seeing these magnificent birds. I never thought I would appreciate vultures, but now I do! The “show” is actually a training session. So the birds are in training but the training methods used are humane and the birds are not forced to “perform”. One day the red tailed hawk didn’t want to come out, and the next today the vulture didn’t want to come out but they said up front that it was spring and birds were moody. I think the owls were my favorite! I loved it when the birds flew right over our heads! Even my teen boys and young adults enjoyed it! Tip: get tickets early as they fill up in the prime season. The first time we went we sat in the middle on the third row which was pretty good and we could see all the info provided on the screens which was helpful. After seeing it the first time we sat on the front row and really enjoyed being so close to the birds but we didn’t need to see the screens since we had seen...

My review is based solely on the Raptor Training Exhibition as we didn't attend the actual nature center. Hopefully next time we'll have more time to do that. We are visiting from out of town until tomorrow & my kids LOVE birds and all animals. I found the website yesterday & took them today as a field trip since we home school & are currently taking a birds course. We REALLY enjoyed the presentation & I was overwhelmingly pleased with their knowledge of the animals & helped our kids interact with the American Crow. I won't give away too many fun details. The crow was my kids' favorite. We also saw a Red Tail Hawk & 2 Eagle Owls. Great humor from presenters!!!! We'll def be back next year to see the new Raptor & amphitheater! My only recommendation is to not allow viewers to bring pets to the presentation as the one today disrupted the...