Australian Hobby

The Australian Hobby, sometimes called the Little Falcon, is a small but fast and agile falcon found throughout mainland Australia in open woodland, farmland, and even urban parks, where it often hunts small birds and insects at dusk. It shares the dark hood and long, pointed-wing build typical of hobbies worldwide, giving it a resemblance to a scaled-down Peregrine Falcon.

Feathers are frequently found beneath favored perches near open woodland edges or urban parklands where the bird is active at twilight.

IUCN status: Least Concern, being widespread and fairly common across Australia.

Recognizing Australian Hobby feathers

• Flight feathers: Long, narrow, and pointed, dark slate-grey with fine darker barring, built for speed and agility.
• Tail feathers: Slender, dark grey with narrow pale banding.
• Body feathers: Crown and back feathers dark slate-grey to blackish; underparts feathers rich rufous-orange, sometimes finely streaked darker on the upper breast.
• Shaft color: Dark grey to blackish.
• Compared to similar species: Notably smaller than a Peregrine Falcon, with proportionately longer, narrower wings and more extensively rufous underparts; smaller and darker-headed than the Brown Falcon, which has broader, more rounded flight feathers.

Adults have a dark slate-grey to blackish crown, nape, and upperparts with a bold dark mustache mark, and rich rufous-orange underparts, sometimes finely streaked on the breast. Juveniles are browner above and paler, more buff-orange below with heavier streaking, molting to the richer adult coloring within their first year.

Widespread across mainland Australia in open woodland, farmland, and increasingly in urban parks and gardens. Largely resident in the south, with some populations showing seasonal or altitudinal movement.

Hunts small birds, bats, and large flying insects in fast, agile aerial pursuit, often active at dawn and dusk. Nests in old stick nests of other birds in tall trees. Calls are sharp, repeated chattering notes. A slate-grey feather with rufous-orange underparts, found beneath a perch in open woodland or a suburban Australian park, is a good match for this species.