In the conversation about the greatest enduring Wimbledon figures, may we pause to pay homage to Rufus the Harris Hawk?

A key player at The Championships and revered member of the Wimbledon family, Rufus has now clocked up 15 years arriving every day at 6am for a workout on Centre Court and No.1 Court, where he puts his game plan into action with a champion’s swagger. Or, you might say, with a shake of the old tail feathers.

Never mind head-to-head records and speculation about form based on previous encounters, Rufus unfailingly scares off the opposition through his formidable aura alone, as he flies into action with admirable court-covering skills.

Rufus, who is also known as ‘The Real Hawk-Eye’, was born in captivity in Northamptonshire. He used to have his own security photocard pass (job title: bird scarer).

Rumour has it that he’s so recognisable after 15 consecutive Wimbledons that he is now just nodded in with his personal retinue, headed by Wayne Davis of Avian Environmental Consultants, a sustainable practice of bird control.

Rufus is, after all, a superstar with his own twitter and Instagram accounts (@RufusTheHawk) and a vociferous fan club. When the Duchess of Cornwall visited the All England Club in 2015, Rufus was in the official receiving line - and rather hogged the limelight with his handsome dark brown plumage, striking yellow beak and intelligent eyes, not to mention his smart leather hood and silver bells on his legs.

He’s not in his natural habitat in a sports venue, but as a woodland hawk and top of the avian chain, he is well suited to weaving in and flushing out pesky vermin.

Using his long legs and loose-feathered, highly manoeuvrable wings, he makes the most of his ability to deliver quick bursts of energy and jinking flights to score a hit from a standing start.

A ‘hit’ in this context means preventing the birds from roosting or ground dwelling without causing harm to the environment, so that they can’t disrupt play.

Rufus is particularly agile at clearing the spaces up in the retractable roofs, which, according to his handlers, represent five-star luxury pigeon lofts. His motto, as he circles around his happy hunting grounds, is carpe pipionem (that’s Latin for ‘seize the pigeon’).

In this year of centenary celebrations, Rufus is marking his own poignant anniversary. It is 10 years ago - almost to the day - since the awful news broke that he had been stolen from a car parked for the night at a private Wimbledon address.

Fortunately, the perpetrator realised that his secure travel box was not a safe for valuables, and that the global outcry emanating from SW19 meant Rufus was near-impossible to flog, and so left him unharmed on Wimbledon Common where he was found three days later and returned to the relieved Davis family. 

During the day Rufus has a radio transmitter clipped to his tail so that he can be tracked via GPS. "He is hunting prey and his emotions are basic," says Davis.

"He is on the lookout for something to kill and eat. He comes back to me because I feed him, but if he hunted down something and crammed himself full, he might then go off and find a cosy tree for 24 to 36 hours. Through a tracking app I know where he is; I can leave him to sleep it off and come back at first light to find him."

Rufus learnt in the slipstream of Hamish, a hawk who had a 25-year career at the All England Club. "We trained him from a young age in the environment in which he is going to work - like here at Wimbledon," says Davis.

"It stimulates their instinct, sharpens their awareness. It’s like training a young horse or a dog, they become acclimatised to a routine they learn early."

Davis can also call upon Horace, a four-year-old Harris Hawk, and Socrates, a Peregrine Falcon, but Rufus and co fly solo missions.

"They are pretty solitary," says Davis, though in the wild they often work in pairs - one to scare out the prey, the other to pounce.

Like the players whose courts he is protecting, Rufus has a pretty full-on year-round schedule. The avian version of chasing points and trophies takes him to Westminster Abbey, Lord’s Cricket Ground as well as the All England Club.

He is called on to make appearances at hospitals and landfill sites. In his time off, he enjoys being taken into the woods near home for a bit of squirrel and rabbit hunting.

But it is at the All England Club that he is in his element. It's here he gets fed treats of quail, no less.

In 2017, one fan ruffled feathers of excitement by arriving at the Grounds dressed up in a giant Rufus costume in order to channel a quintessential piece of Wimbledon. "I needed to do something very special," said the fan. "And Rufus is an icon."

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