Eagles' Peak

Starting off
Talk to Charlie the zoo keeper at Ardougne Zoo. He is at the south-west part of the zoo, just south of the scorpion cage. He'll tell you about a delivery of a northern ferret who managed to escape his cage while unloading. He will ask you to contact a huntsman called Nickolaus who agreed to capture another ferret, but he hasn't heard from him for some time. He will ask you to look for him. Finally, ask "Sure. Any idea where I should start looking?", and upon Charlie's answer, the quest begins. Charlie will tell you to start around the mountains just west of the Gnome Stronghold.
 * Note: Do not use a hunter potion to boost your Hunter level, as there is a part in the quest later on where you need level 27 Hunter.

Eagles' Peak
Head to Eagles' Peak, which is west of the Tree Gnome Stronghold. If you have access to the fairy ring network, code gets you there relatively fast, and you can talk to Kathy Corkat to fast travel to the base of the mountain. At the base of the mountain on the north side, you should find a tent, but Nickolaus is no where to be found. Inspect the books on the ground, and you will receive a bird book. Try to read the book and a metal feather will fall out of the book.

Follow the path up to the peak, which starts on the south side of the mountain, or use the Agility shortcut right beside the tent. At the top is a door (disguised as a rocky outcrop) with an inscription of a feather on the north side. Use the metal feather from the book to open the door. Then, go inside. A second book about the birds of RuneScape is inside, but it is not critical to the quest. The passages split to three tunnels to other areas and another metal door, used later, and to a ledge over a large open area. A cutscene will start when you enter the ledge and you will talk to Nickolaus, who is trapped across a chasm by a giant eagle that will not let him out of the cave.

Eagle disguise
Nickolaus tells you to make a disguise for him. Talk to him about eagles—mention that he is trapped and offer to help. The disguise requires 10 eagle feathers, which are all over the dungeon. In addition, you'll need one swamp tar and a yellow dye.

Once you have collected 10 eagle feathers, teleport to Varrock and go to the Fancy Clothes Store in the south-east corner. The shop owner wants 10 giant feathers to make the costumes plus swamp tar and yellow dye. The swamp tar can be found in Canifis and Lumbridge Swamp respawns. The yellow dye can be bought from the seamstress in Lletya (Elf Village), or from Aggie in Draynor or Ali the Dyer in Pollnivneach with two onions and five coins.

When you bring all items and an additional 50 coins, the fancy-dress shop owner will make two eagle capes and two fake beaks. With the two sets of disguises, return to the Eagles' Peak dungeon and shout to Nickolaus again. He wants you to bring the clothes to him.

Unlocking the eagle door
Go to the south-west extremity of the dungeon. You will find a large stone door with an eagle marking, which leads to Nickolaus. You cannot open the door in this state. Three feathers (bronze, silver, gold) are required to be able to open the door.

Bronze feather
West of the eagle door is a tunnel. The southern-most tunnel leads to a room with a stone pedestal on which sits a bronze feather. Attempt to take the feather, and the obvious net trap will lift it upwards. Now, operate all four winches in each of the corners, causing the net trap to break. The pedestal will fall down, and it is possible to take the bronze feather. Leave and follow the directions to the silver feather cave.
 * Note: You cannot operate the winches before the net trap has activated.

Silver feather
A bit further north, a second tunnel leads into another dungeon room, this time with an empty pedestal. Inspect the pedestal, and a partial trail will appear. Follow the trail, and inspect the closest heap of rocks to the end of the trail. If you are correct, the trail from the pedestal is shown to the heap of rocks. Investigate rocks near where the trail ends—if correct, another trail will appear. Repeat until the trail leads to a tunnel in the wall. Click the tunnel in the wall now, and a level-13 kebbit will attack. Kill it, and its drop is the silver feather.

Gold feather
The third tunnel entrance is in the north-east corner of the main dungeon. You need to get to the end of a long corridor due west from the entrance. That corridor is blocked by metal eagles and eagle wings. The birds can be moved by putting bird seeds in the bird feeder close to the point where you need the eagle to go to. The eagle wings can be moved by pulling a lever. There are four levers and five metal eagles.

To start, get some odd bird seed near the entrance to place in bird feeders. You'll need six to finish the puzzle.

There really is not much choice in operating the eagles and levers. The table lists the sequence. You need to clear access to the north-west lever, by operating the south-west and centre levers. The north-west lever unlocks the eastern part of the area and gives access to the east lever. Although operating this lever clears a critical eagle wing blocking the corridor to the golden feather, there are still blocking objects from the actions to get to the east lever. Use the table above to remove any remaining objects blocking the corridor. To solve the puzzle, follow these steps. After collecting all three feathers (bronze, silver and gold), use each feather on the door which opens it. Walk to Nickolaus and wear the full eagle disguise to "walk past" the eagle guarding Nickolaus. Not wearing a disguise, the eagle will hit you for a small amount of damage.
 * 1) First pull the lever, which is just north-west of the start.
 * 2) Walk to the south-eastern part of the dungeon. Then, place some bird seed in most south-eastern bird feeder. (marked 2)
 * 3) Place some bird seed in the bird feeder next to the one you just filled. (marked 3)
 * 4) Pull the eastern lever.
 * 5) Walk back to the handle you pulled the first time, just north-west of the start, and pull it again.
 * 6) Walk to the southern part of the dungeon, and put bird seed in the feeder south of the lever you just pulled and west of the lever in the southern part.
 * 7) Pull the lever in the southern part of the dungeon.
 * 8) Go back to the lever you started at, which is just north-west of the start, and put bird feed in the feeder.
 * 9) Pull the lever in the north-western part of the dungeon.
 * 10) Go to the southern part of the dungeon, and put bird feed in the bird feeder closest to the lever there.
 * 11) Place some feed in the bird feeder in the corner of the rails to the east of the bird feeder from step 10.
 * 12) Retrieve the golden feather from the pedestal.

After a short conversation, Nickolaus requests you to meet him back at the camp.

A bit further east are three huge eagles (polar, jungle and desert). After the quest, they can be used as a transport system to the other Hunter areas from the South Woodland Hunter Area.

Finishing up
Go back out of the Eagles' Peak dungeon and go down the rock climb. On the ground where the tent you were at before is, talk to Nickolaus and he'll teach you how to catch ferrets. Go back to Ardougne Zoo with the ferret you caught. Talk to Charlie who gives the quest reward.

Reward

 * 2 Quest points
 * 2,500 Hunter experience
 * Ability to capture ferrets using box traps
 * Access to the Eagle transport system
 * Captured ferrets can be used to flush rabbits from their holes, allowing them to be caught in rabbit snares

Trivia

 * The giant Kebbit that jumps out of the cave with the silver feather is likely a reference to the killer rabbit in the Monty Python and the Holy Grail film.