Falco subbuteo
A dashing, swift-like falcon that hunts dragonflies and small birds on the wing.
Size: 30-36 cm | Habitat: Farmland & Countryside Birds | Season: Summer visitor
Sleek and fast, the hobby is a slim falcon with long, scythe-shaped wings, often compared to a giant swift in flight. Reddish "trousers" and a bold black moustache mark it out from other UK falcons.
Long, pointed, scythe-shaped wings · dark slate-grey back · heavily streaked underparts · rust-red thighs and undertail · bold black moustache stripe
Hobbies are astonishingly agile fliers, catching dragonflies and large flying insects in their talons and eating them in mid-air, and are also fast enough to take swallows, martins, and swifts on the wing.
Hobbies have expanded their UK range in recent decades, partly thanks to gravel pits and reservoirs that provide the dragonfly-rich hunting grounds they depend on.
The Hobby (Falco subbuteo) is a sleek, fast falcon with long, scythe-shaped wings, often likened to a giant swift in flight, with rust-red "trousers" and a bold black moustache stripe that set it apart from other UK falcons.
Hobbies are extraordinarily agile fliers, catching dragonflies and other large flying insects in their talons and eating them on the wing, and are fast enough to also take swallows, martins, and swifts in flight. They arrive in Britain in late spring and leave for Africa again by early autumn.
The hobby's UK range has expanded significantly in recent decades, likely helped by the spread of gravel pits and reservoirs, which create exactly the dragonfly-rich hunting grounds the species relies on — a rare example of human landscape change working in a bird's favour.
🟢 Conservation status: Green (UK Birds of Conservation Concern 5)
Green-listed under BoCC5, with both UK and global populations considered stable, and a range that has been expanding northward in recent decades.