IDENTIFICATION

VOCALISATIONS

The only call reported in HK is a high-pitched repeated ‘kee-kee-kee...’

DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE

In summer, all records are from northern, eastern and central parts of the New Territories when it is mainly found over marshes, agricultural land and lightly-wooded hills. On passage, it is also found in better-wooded areas and is much more widespread, with records throughout the New Territories and offshore islands, and occasionally also Kowloon.

OCCURRENCE

Eurasian Hobby occurs mainly from late March to early November, with spring passage evident in April and May, smaller numbers reported in the summer months and autumn passage chiefly in September and October (Figure 1), a pattern unchanged since at least the early 1990s.

Spring passage peaks in the last week of April and peters out in May, with the increase in the third week probably related to breeding birds being more obvious in the vicinity of nesting locations. Since there are midsummer reports in most years since 1991, breeding by a very small number of pairs is likely a frequent occurrence. The main autumn passage occurs from the last week of September to the last week of October, peaking in the second and third weeks. Extreme dates are 18 March 2017 and Mai Po on 30 November in 2016.

Most sightings refer to one or two birds, occasionally three or four, with the highest count being seven at southwest Lantau on 12 October 2015.

Although Kershaw (1904) stated that it was resident at the mouth of the Pearl River, it was first recorded in HK by Vaughan and Jones (1913) who considered it rare, though, in contrast to its present status, they noted it as an uncommon winter visitor to the Guangdong coast and resident on the West River and inland; the latter may be in error. Apart from one at Pok Fu Lam on 6 November 1941 (Herklots 1941), there were no further records until the early 1950s when it was noted at Long Valley between May and October, including on six midsummer dates, and was thought to be almost certainly breeding there (Dove and Goodhart 1955). Subsequently, one or two were noted in most years up to 1966, there was only one record during 1967-1972, but it has been reported annually since 1973.

BREEDING

There are a small number of breeding records, all from the northern New Territories near the boundary. A nest has been noted as early as 24 April. A disused Common Magpie nest on top of an electricity pylon was used at Ho Sheung Heung (Walthew 1995), who considered laying took place in early June. Over the years two to four chicks have been noted from 10 July to 29 August. Chan and Kwok (2018) describe observations made of a nest on an electricity pylon that had four juveniles and adult(s) in attendance.

BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET

Often seen hunting late afternoon or at dusk when its speed and agility in flight are utilised to catch winged prey. Prey items noted are dragonflies, bats (including Pipistrellus sp.) and birds, those identified being Barn Swallow and Eurasian Tree Sparrow.

RANGE & SYSTEMATICS

Breeds south of the Arctic Circle from Europe east to Kamchatka and south as far as extreme North Africa in the west and south China in the east; winters largely in sub-Saharan Africa, but also in southwest China and northeast Indochina (Orta et al. 2020). In China a summer visitor to the lower altitude non-desert areas of the north and a migrant or summer visitor in the south (Liu and Chen 2020). HK records indicate it probably breeds at low densities in southeast coastal areas.

Two subspecies are recognised: the nominate occurs from Europe to Japan, including north India and central China, while F. s. streichi breeds from Myanmar to Indochina and south China. It would appear that both forms should occur in HK, the first as a migrant and the second largely as a breeding species.

CONSERVATION STATUS

IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend decreasing.