Luke Massarella has bred around 90 falcons and produces up to 100 birds a year, carefully selecting proven birds and bloodlines for his breeding programme.
By day, Luke Massarella comes from a family with around 200 years of experience in ice-cream making. Increasingly, however, his working life revolves around something very different: falcons.
The fifth-generation, Italian-origin ice-cream maker has spent the past 17 years breeding falcons in Britain, producing between 70 and 100 birds a year. He travels to the Middle East around five times a year to meet customers and watch his birds compete.
It was Massarella’s first visit to the ADIHEX falcon auction in Abu Dhabi, where he came to understand how the event and its bidding process work. He had already spotted a couple of birds that caught his interest, but said his main aim was to observe, learn and gain a better understanding of the auction.
His falcon-breeding journey began as a childhood hobby. His father and older brother flew falcons and hawks in Britain, and Massarella followed them into the sport before eventually trying to breed birds for his own use. What began as an interest in hunting and flying gradually developed into a passion for breeding, he said.
By around 2013, he had sent his first falcons to Dubai. Since then, the Gulf has become a regular part of his breeding calendar, with trips to the UAE and Bahrain among his destinations. He now travels particularly during the training and flying season, sometimes making around five trips a year.
The trips are about more than delivering birds. Massarella said he visits customers during training sessions and watches his own falcons fly. When a customer tells him a bird is not performing as expected, he takes note and uses the feedback to refine his breeding programme. “I write it down, then I go back and I change,” he said, explaining that he may alter the father or another element of the breeding combination.
He also adjusts the birds’ training, including allowing them to fly for longer periods to build strength. “It is a lot of things,” he said. “As long as the guys are happy, I’m okay.”
That feedback has become central to his breeding strategy. Massarella said he initially focused on a smaller number of bloodlines as he worked to establish a reputation for producing successful birds.
His approach has since expanded as he has identified bloodlines that consistently perform well. Among his favourites is the Shama line, which he said is known for producing birds that win races or regularly finish among the top three.
He also highlighted another bloodline that produced a particularly fast falcon known as Turb. Today, he breeds several types, including pure falcons and Garmousha, while continuing to develop new combinations based on performance.
