Oriental Hobby

About the Oriental Hobby

The Oriental hobby (Falco severus) 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.

It is a member of Falco subgenus Falco, the hobbies. In the past, two subspecies were accepted, F. s. severus in Asia and F. s. papuanus from Sulawesi to the Solomon Islands, but the latter is no longer considered distinct, with the species now treated as monotypic.

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... Wikipedia →