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Eurasian Hobbies are small birds of prey. The two sexes look alike. The upperparts, from frons to tail, are charcoal grey. Chest and belly are white to off-white, boldly streaked dark-grey. The chin and the sides of the neck, except for the typical "tear drop" below the eye, are white, offsetting the dark cap with an incomplete collar. Vent, undertail coverts and trousers are rufous-red. The underwings are entirely grey, with fine darker-grey barring all over. The irises are brown; the grey, hooked bill has a dark tip, with yellow cere at its base. The lower legs and feet are orange-yellow. Juveniles have a brown top of the head, brown back with dark-grey centres of the feathers and, apart from a dark facial mask, buff sides of the head and front, where the front is heavily streaked dark-brown.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Eurasian Hobby is available HERE .

Eurasian Hobbies are a partly sedentary, partly migratory species. There are two extant races, the nominate race "subbuteo" and race "streichi". Their overall range extends over large parts of Africa and most of Eurasia, up to near the polar circle. In the northern parts of their range they are migratory, in the southern parts (Africa, the Indian subcontinent, south-east Asia) either sedentary or winter visitors.

In Europe Eurasian Hobbies, nominate race "subbuteo", are breeding migrants from sub-Saharan and eastern Africa. They are found anywhere EXCEPT Ireland, northern England, Scotland and much of Scandinavia. In Scandinavia their breeding range reaches southern and near-coastal Sweden and southern Finland, but no farther. In some parts of Iberia and in all high-altitude European mountain ranges they do not breed, but can be found during migration.

Eurasian Hobbies are flexible in their choice of habitat during the breeding season, but they do need trees to nest in (often re-using existing nests, often of corvids. Usually they require open landscapes like grassland, meadows, agricultural fields or various types of wetlands for hunting, while using woodland or forest for nesting.

Race "subbuteo"