Eurasian Hobby

The Eurasian hobby is a small, slim, elegant falcon, 29–36 cm long with a wingspan of 74–84 cm and a weight of 175–285 g. Adults are slate-grey above with a dark crown and two short black moustache stripes, an unstreaked white throat, unstreaked rufous thighs and undertail coverts, and whitish underparts with black streaks; a close view shows the red trousers and vent. In flight it looks sickle-like, with long pointed wings and a square tail, and often looks like a swift when gliding with folded wings (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds across the Palearctic, mostly nesting in old nests of crows and rooks, typically raising a single brood of two or three eggs from June to August, and one subspecies is mainly resident. It is known to harass swallows at their roosts and when they disperse from them, and on migration may move in small groups. The cached account gives no detail specific to India. SoIB 2023 rates it a Low conservation priority, a winter migrant and localised summer migrant of open habitat that eats invertebrates (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).