Birds of prey will be unleashed in Cooperstown Central School later this month.

Jonathan Wood was twelve years old when he read "My Side of the Mountain," a book by Jean Craighead George about a boy who trains a falcon in the Catskill Mountains. Wood said that the book fired up a lifelong passion and now he not only lives "the American dream," making a good living doing what he loves, but he's one of the main characters of the sequel to the book that inspired him so many years ago.

The book is called "Frightful's Mountain," and Wood said his friendship with the author resulted in the creation of John Wood, a master falconer. In real life, Wood said he created his own technique with birds and has since amassed the largest private collection of birds of prey, called raptors, in the country.

"We have a bird representing every climate in the world," said Wood, who is on the road constantly with his family. "The arctic, desert, rainforest, wetlands, prairie, woodlands and tundra. When I visit schools, I instruct students about the habitats the birds come from."

Wood said that he has people on his payroll now who were once kids watching his show. He has seen children grow up and become conservationists or biologists after seeing the raptors, and that's why he travels with his wife, Susan, and baby, Rachel, year-round. They plan to get a motor home soon to avoid hotel stays every night.

Anticipating Jonathan Wood's visit, art teacher Kristin Karasek assigned her sculpture and studio art students to construct predators of their own. The result is an array of parakeets, owls, falcons and other beaked beasts, some still wingless, some painted with targets or Campbell's soup cans on their chests.

Many of the birds are astonishingly accurate, like an owl with iridescent yellow eyes and a tiny, lime green parakeet. Some, like Wood's own birds, have tremendous wingspans.

Student Andrea Quiros, co-creator of an owl, said that the birds are made of paper and tape.

Wood, who runs The Raptor Project, is licensed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation as a master falconer, wildlife rehabilitator, raptor and game bird propagator, scientific collector, wildlife exhibitor and an endangered species exhibitor.

"Some people have a problem with birds being kept caged," said Karasek. "But most of the birds he has are permanently handicapped and can't be set free in the wild anyway."

Some of the show-stealers are Cody, a golden eagle with a seven foot wingspan, Uncle Sam, the "patriotic bald eagle," and Tiny Tim, a whet-owl weighing in at two ounces.

"As mankind continues to exert an influence on our planet's wildlife, there exists an ever-increasing need to foster an interest in the importance of sound conservation and wildlife management," wrote Wood in a letter to the school. "We hand-pick, tame and train attractive, majestic birds that stand as beautiful and charming ambassadors of their species."

Wood's program at the school will be sponsored by an Arts in Education grant for which Karasek, Amy Parr, seventh grade life science teacher, and Ann Olmstead, middle school English teacher, jointly applied. The audience can't handle the birds. The eagles can be lethal, Wood said, and birds don't understand anger or discipline.

The show is free, open to the public and will begin at 7:00 and last until 8:30 p.m. on April 27 at the middle/high school auditorium at Cooperstown.