Eurasian hobby
{{Short description|Species of bird}}
{{speciesbox
| image = Eurasian hobby (Falco subbuteo) by Shantanu Kuveskar.jpg
| image_caption = Falco subbuteo passage migrant in Mangaon, Raigad, Maharashtra, India
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| genus = Falco
| species = subbuteo
| range_map = FalcoSubbuteoIUCNver2019 2.png
| range_map_caption = Range of F. subbuteo{{leftlegend|#00FF00|Breeding|outline=gray}} {{leftlegend|#008000|Resident|outline=gray}} {{leftlegend|#00FFFF|Passage|outline=gray}} {{leftlegend|#007FFF|Non-breeding|outline=gray}}
}}
The Eurasian hobby (Falco subbuteo) or just hobby, is a small, slim falcon. It belongs to a group of similar falcons often considered a subgenus Hypotriorchis.
Taxonomy and systematics
The first formal description of the Eurasian hobby was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the present binomial name Falco subbuteo. The genus name falco derives from Late Latin falx, falcis, a sickle, referring to the wing profile of the bird.{{cite book|title=Shorter Oxford English dictionary | year=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press| location=Oxford| isbn=978-0199206872| pages=3804}} The species name subbuteo is from Latin sub, "below, less than, under" and buteo, "buzzard".{{cite book | last= Jobling | first= James A | year= 2010| title= The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | url= https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling | publisher = Christopher Helm | location = London | isbn = 978-1-4081-2501-4 |pages =[https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling/page/n266 266], 369}} The species' English name comes from Old French hobé or hobet.{{Cite OED |Hobby }} It became the trademark for the Subbuteo games company after its creator, who was an ornithologist, was refused permission to register "Hobby".Hodkinson, Mark. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110523033055/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article601725.ece Table-topping star of the big flick-off: Uncovering the bizarre playboy lifestyle of Subbuteo’s inventor]. The Times, 16 October 2006. Retrieved on 2007-08-12.
Two subspecies are recognized:{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen | date=July 2023 | title=Seriemas, falcons | work=IOC World Bird List Version 13.2 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/falcons/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=3 September 2023 }}
- F. s. subbuteo: the nominate race is resident in Africa, Europe and Central and East Asia, winters in Central and South Africa and South Asia
- F. s. streichi: described by Ernst Hartert and Oscar Neumann in 1907, is smaller in size and is a resident species from Myanmar to south China and north Indochina.
Description
Adults are slate-grey above with a dark crown and two short black moustache stripes. The throat is unstreaked white, thighs and undertail coverts are unstreaked rufous and rest of the underparts are whitish with black streaks. Close views enable the red "trousers" and vent to be seen. Sexes are similar. Juveniles are generally much browner, with scaled upper parts and streaked buffy thighs and undertail coverts.
The hobby has a distinct first-summer plumage.
This falcon is {{Convert|29|–|36|cm|in|abbr=on}} in length with a wingspan of {{convert|74|–|84|cm|in|abbr=on}} and a weight of {{convert|175|–|285|g|oz|abbr=on}}.
Distribution and habitat
This species breeds across the Palearctic realm. The subspecies F. s. subbuteo is a long-distance migrant, wintering in Africa. The subspecies F. s. streichi is mainly resident and does not migrate.{{ cite book | last1=White | first1=C.M. | last2=Olsen | first2=P.D. | last3=Kiff | first3=L.F. | year=1994 | chapter=Family Falconidae (Falcons and Caracaras) | editor1-last=del Hoyo | editor1-first=J. | editor2-last=Elliott | editor2-first=A. | editor3-last=Sargatal | editor3-first=J. | title=Handbook of the Birds of the World | volume=2: New World Vultures to Guineafowl | location=Barcelona, Spain | publisher=Lynx Edicions | isbn=978-84-87334-15-3 | pages=216–277 [268] | chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofbirdso0002unse/page/268/mode/1up | chapter-url-access=registration }} It is a rare vagrant in North America, with extralimital records from Massachusetts, Washington, and Alaska in the United States,{{Cite web |title=Eurasian Hobby – Massachusetts Avian Records Committee |url=https://maavianrecords.com/review-list/eurasian-hobby/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=maavianrecords.com}}{{Cite web |title=Washington State Checklist – Washington Ornithological Society |url=https://wos.org/records/checklist/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Eurasian Hobby {{!}} Audubon Field Guide |url=https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/eurasian-hobby |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=www.audubon.org |language=en}} as well as in Newfoundland and British Columbia in Canada.{{Cite book |last=Beehler |first=Bruce M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qRf7EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA440 |title=Birds of North America: A Photographic Atlas |date=2024-04-09 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-1-4214-4826-8 |page=440 |language=en}} It has also been sighted in Australia and Brazil.{{Cite journal |last1=Pallinger |first1=Frederick |last2=Soares |first2=Joacil Germano |last3=Schunck |first3=Fabio |date=2023-09-07 |title=First record of Eurasian Hobby Falco subbuteo in South America |journal=Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club |language=en |volume=143 |issue=3 |doi=10.25226/bboc.v143i3.2023.a10 |issn=0007-1595 |doi-access=free}}{{Cite journal |last=Singor |first=Marcus |date=February 2021 |title=Eurasian Hobby Falco subbuteo: A review of recent records from Western Australia and Australian external territories |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353410037 |journal=Australian Field Ornithology |volume=38 |pages=119–123 |doi=10.20938/afo38119123}}
Behaviour and ecology
It is a bird of open country such as farmland, marshes, taiga and savannah. They are widespread in lowlands with scattered small woods. It is an elegant bird of prey, appearing sickle-like in flight with its long pointed wings and square tail, often resembling a swift when gliding with folded wings. It is fast and powerful in flight and will take large insects, such as dragonflies, which it transfers from talons to beak and eats while soaring slowly in circles. It also captures small bats{{cite journal|last1=Mikula|first1=P.|last2=Morelli|first2=F.|last3=Lučan|first3=R. K.|last4=Jones|first4=D. N.|last5=Tryjanowski|first5=P.|year=2016|title=Bats as prey of diurnal birds: a global perspective|journal=Mammal Review|volume=46|issue=3|pages=160–174|doi=10.1111/mam.12060|bibcode=2016MamRv..46..160M }} and small birds in flight. Its speed and aerobatic skills enable it to take swallows and even swifts on the wing, and barn swallows or house martins have a characteristic "hobby" alarm call. It is known to harass swallows while they are roosting and dispersing from roosts. When not breeding, it is crepuscular, hawking principally in the mornings and evenings. While on migration, they may move in small groups.
Hobbies nest in old nests of crows and other birds. The tree selected is most often one in a hedge or on the extreme edge of a spinney, from where the bird can observe intruders from a considerable distance. It lays 2–4 eggs. Incubation is said to take 28 days and both parents share in this duty, though the female does the greater part.
It is a very bold and courageous bird and was used in falconry, trained to hawk birds like quails, larks, hoopoes, drongos, etc.
References
External links
{{Commons category|Falco subbuteo}}
{{Wikispecies|Falco subbuteo}}
- [http://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/173.pdf Eurasian Hobby or Hobby Falcon species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20141202062820/http://aulaenred.ibercaja.es/wp-content/uploads/134_HobbyFsubbuteo.pdf Ageing and sexing (PDF; 5.7 MB) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze]
- {{Xeno-canto species|Falco|subbuteo|Eurasian hobby}}
- {{InternetBirdCollection|eurasian-hobby-falco-subbuteo}}
- {{BirdLife|22696460|Falco subbuteo}}
- {{Avibase}}
- {{VIREO|Eurasian+hobby}}
- {{IUCN_Map|22696460/210514648|Falco subbuteo}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q25876}}
{{Authority control}}