Skip to content
The UK Bird Atlas

Hobby (Falco subbuteo)Where and when to see it in the UK

Status not yet classified · reporting peaks May · Falcons and Caracaras · BOU category AF

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Hobby (Falco subbuteo)
Mike Prince from Bangalore, India, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Hobby: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Hobby has been recorded in 1,356 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (46%) in records to 2026. Its strongest squares are in England, Wales and Scotland. Reporting peaks in May.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
25% or more of visits
High
6% to 25%
Moderate
2% to 6%
Low
under 2%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 0%<1%Very high
February 0%<1%Very high
March 0%<1%Very high
April 17%1%Low
May 100%6%Moderate
June 73%4%Very high
July 60%3%Very high
August 86%5%Very high
September 89%5%High
October 11%<1%Low
November 0%<1%Very high
December 0%<1%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in May

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
HP60Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
NU14Northumberland, England100%Very high
NX40Isle of Man100%Very high
NY98Northumberland, England100%Very high
NZ18Northumberland, England100%Very high
NZ19Northumberland, England100%Very high
NZ29Northumberland, England100%Very high
NZ36South Tyneside, England100%Very high
NZ71North Yorkshire, England100%Very high
NZ80North Yorkshire, England100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.