It’s a bird, it’s a plane … it’s a Mongolian hunting eagle.

Mongolia’s annual Golden Eagle Festival is a famed weekend-long event that celebrates the Kazakh tradition of hunting with eagles.

Each year during the first weekend of October, dozens of eagle hunters travel to the Kazakh-populated province in Western Mongolia to showcase their impressive skill, a journey that includes a 40-hour bus ride over unpaved roads, according to Barcroft Media.

Clad in heavy fur pelts and colorful embroidery, the hunters are judged on their costumes, horse harnesses and the skill of their eagles.

The hunters ride through the arena while their eagles are blindfolded and carried high up a mountain. Once the bird’s hood is removed, they soar back down in response to their hunter’s call.

Only 360 nomads still practice the 2,000-year-old tradition.