🦉 The Eurasian hobby (Falco subbuteo)
📚 Falco phalcōn (Greek), falco (Lat.) falcon; the word falco is derived from falx (sickle, scythe) and means "curved in the form of a sickle", which is associated with the shape of a falcon's wing in flight or its powerful sickle-shaped claws (Gotch, 1981)
📚 subbuteo lat.: sub below, under, close to.., partly, buteo buzzard
A small falcon about the size of a pigeon. These birds settle in forests next to open spaces, or to be more precise, fields.
They nest in old nests of magpies or crows, and they can easily drive out their owners.
But here's what's interesting. When I observed them for 3 months, they nested very high in coniferous trees. Most likely they occupied the old nest of a larger bird of prey.
In the second year of observations, I again found them in this forest near the field. Because they always return to their old nests.
They feed on birds and large insects, which they catch in the air, grabbing with their paws.
In these photos, an adult bird hunts near her territory, and fledglings are waiting for a parent with food.
We had a Eurasian Hobby show up in the far northwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, U.S several years ago where it stayed long enough for hundreds of U.S. birders to visit. A cool bird. Thanks.
thanks!
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