About the Oriental Hobby
The Oriental hobby is a species of falcon typically 27–30 cm long. It can be found locally in the Indo-Gangetic Plain in the north of the Indian subcontinent, across the eastern Himalayas, east across southern China and the Philippines, and southwards through Indochina to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands; its distribution is patchy, being absent from Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula, despite occurring both north and south of there. It has been recorded as a vagrant from Malaysia and southern India.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
ID tip
Adults are rich orange-red below, bluish-grey above with a black hood and pale throat. Juveniles have black streaks on its rufous chest and a mottled back. They do not exhibit sexual dimorphism. It differs from the Eurasian hobby in the wholly orange-red underparts (not just the legs and lower belly), and from the more similar Australian hobby in the more extensive black on the head with the black malar stripe merging into the black nape, without the white 'hook' behind the cheeks. Like the other hobbies, it has bright yellow legs, eye ring and cere.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Where it lives
When to see it
Peak activity in February · a resident species across most of its range
Easily confused with
Grey FalconFalco hypoleucosThe species has mainly grey upperparts and white underparts, darker on the tips of the flight feathers and with a yellow cere.
Sooty FalconFalco concolorThis is an elegant bird of prey, 32–37 cm long with a 78–90 cm wingspan.
Fox KestrelFalco alopexIt is a large, slender kestrel with long, narrow wings and tail.
Learn the Oriental Hobby for real
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