Should Raptors Sniff?

Likely instead of smelling, you can replace smelling with a special vision thing since hawks/falcons/other raptors have very excellent sight. When pressing a key for a while, everything will darken except for key things (prey, other people, perhaps a quest item like a key) which will be highlighted in different colors for a few seconds.

Edit: The cost of flying + seeing ability would be strength. Birds are fragile and bones are prone to breaking.

Well... some birds do have a pretty good sense of smell, like vultures and seagulls for instance (I don't think they sniff though lol), but also a lot of birds rely more on sight and hearing to find their food, detect threats, etc. I like what Luna suggested with the sight mechanic in exchange for a health debuff

I'd definitely take flying anywhere over smelling though!

I don't think Raptors should have any sense of smell when it comes to finding prey
If they do have a sense of smell, it'd have to be very very weak
Like Luna said, Raptors should have an ability to detect prey from a far distance because of their eyesight (Maybe go into a mode called Eagle-eye where everything is zoomed closer and prey is highlighted). Giving up scent would also give up the ability to smell things other players have interacted with (yep, no smelling rat farts) which would be a big debuff. You could just eliminate that ability altogether, OR still maintain the ability to know who's been where but instead of using scent you could use eyesight. For example, Raptors could use their keen eyesight to see evidence on the marked object that points to a specific species. Sorta like forensic evidence, a Raptor could see claw markings, pawprints, maybe even fur tufts left behind that would all point to the specific player that interacted with the object. It'd be cool to solve a crime with a canine/feline who knows the scent, and a raptor who knows the clawmarks and fur color. Some interesting investigation RP opportunities here
Also about the strength debuff, I don't know how that would work because bigger raptors like Eagles or Condors could prove to be quite strong when attacking prey/enemies, those claws can do a lot of damage. Instead, I think their defense/hp should be lowered drastically. A couple of big blows to a Raptor could destroy it. Raptors are strong with attacks, but crumble when hit back.

I agree with what a lot of people are saying in here, the sight would be a really cool feature for raptors, but I wouldn't take away the ability to fly anywhere. That's something kind of unique to CS. You don't see a lot of games that let you fly anywhere and if you can there's usually still some limits