The Eurasian Hobby (Falco Subbuteo): Biology of an Aerial Hunter

The Hobby is a dashing, handsome summer visitor, adept at catching dragonflies and flying birds, even agile enough to catch Swifts. It is increasing in UK and Ireland, but is distributed widely and has varying fortunes across its range. Other more popular books have been written about these birds but this is very much more a scientific treatise.

This is a revised and updated English language book, originally published in German in 2011 after several editions, and containing new results from the novel satellite telemetry, unavailable in earlier editions. It represents the life’s work of the author, who spent six decades studying Hobbies, initially around his home in Berlin, as he died not long after completing it. A polyglot as well as a raptor fieldworker, he was determined to write the book in English himself.

It is a very thorough book, covering all aspects of Hobby life cycle, biology, distribution, systematics and evolution. Hunting and food and the migration sections were particularly well-written and informative. 34 pages of (small type) references demonstrate just how much research has gone into this book and what a fantastic source of information about Hobbies it is. It is generously illustrated both with maps and graphs and colour photographs illustrating many of the points discussed.

The author was fluent in English, but the turn of phrase can be slightly odd at times, making bits of the text hard-going and the most disappointing thing about this book is the quality of printing and binding. You expect small print-run books to carry a high price tag, but this quality is poor considering the hefty price.

Not a book for a casual read, but full of useful information for any students of raptors, especially falcons, derived from a career studying these birds in the field and through academic research.

Book reviewed by Su Gough