CreatureData

Oriental hobby

Falco severus Horsfield, 1821

LCLeast Concernbirds of prey

The oriental hobby (Falco severus) is a species in the family Falconidae, order Falconiformes. Recorded adults weigh 179.5 g to 220.5 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Oriental hobby (Falco severus)
Photo: Michael Gillam from Phuket, Thailand · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the oriental hobby

Weight
179.5 g – 220.5 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
61 cm – 69 cmsrc for Wingspan
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Carnivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
forestsrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
25 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
2.8 – 3.75src for Young per litter or clutch
Lifestyle
Aerialsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Migratorysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

How big is the oriental hobby?

ORIENTAL HOBBY · WINGSPAN 69 CMADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 69 cm, the recorded maximum wingspan of the oriental hobby is about 41% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the oriental hobby live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The oriental hobby is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the oriental hobby?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The Oriental hobby (Falco severus) is a species of falcon typically 27–30 cm long. It can be found locally in the Indo-Gangetic Plain in the north of the Indian subcontinent, across the eastern Himalayas, east across southern China and the Philippines, and southwards through Indochina to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands; its distribution is patchy, being absent from Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula, despite occurring both north and south of there. It has been recorded as a vagrant from Malaysia and southern India.

From the Wikipedia article “Oriental hobby” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oriental_hobby&oldid=1379852346), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the oriental hobby endangered?

The oriental hobby is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the oriental hobby classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderFalconiformes
  5. familyFalconidae
  6. genusFalco
  7. SpeciesFalco severus Horsfield, 1821

Synonyms Falco aldrovandii, Falco severus papuanus, Falco severus severus

Other names and names in other languages (35)
  • شاهين شرقيArabic
  • falcó mostatxut orientalCatalan
  • ostříž rezavobřichýCzech
  • hebog ehedydd y DwyrainWelsh
  • Orientalsk LærkefalkDanish
  • MalaienbaumfalkeGerman
  • Malaien-BaumfalkeGerman
  • MaleienbaumfalkeGerman
  • orienta falkoEsperanto
  • Alcotán filipinoSpanish
  • Alcotán OrientalSpanish
  • ida-lõopistrikEstonian
  • idännuolihaukkaFinnish
  • Faucon aldrovandinFrench
  • riđotrbi sokolCroatian
  • keleti kabasólyomHungarian
  • Alap-alap macanIndonesian
  • Lodolaio orientaleItalian
  • ミナミチゴハヤブサJapanese
  • rytinis sketsakalisLithuanian
  • ചെമ്പുള്ള്Malayalam
  • Oosterse BoomvalkDutch
  • libellefalkNorwegian
  • sokół rdzawobrzuchyPolish
  • ógea-orientalPortuguese
  • Восточный чеглокRussian
  • sokol čiernochrbtýSlovak
  • Orijentalni lastavičarSerbian
  • orientlärkfalkSwedish
  • orientalisk lärkfalkSwedish
  • เหยี่ยวฮอบบี้Thai
  • Doğu doğanıTurkish
  • Asya Delice DoğanıTurkish
  • підсоколик східнийUkrainian
  • 猛隼Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the oriental hobby

Other species in the same genus Falco.

LC, Least Concern
Merlin (Falco columbarius)

Merlin

Falco columbarius

Falconidae

LC, Least Concern
Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus)

Gyrfalcon

Falco rusticolus

Falconidae

CompareOriental hobby vs Peregrine falconOriental hobby vs Common kestrelOriental hobby vs Eurasian hobbyOriental hobby vs Merlin

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the oriental hobby?

An adult oriental hobby weighs 179.5 g – 220.5 g and has a wingspan of 61 cm – 69 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the oriental hobby live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the oriental hobby for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the oriental hobby endangered?

The oriental hobby is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the oriental hobby?

The oriental hobby (Falco severus) belongs to the family Falconidae in the order Falconiformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Oriental hobby (Falco severus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/oriental-hobby

MLA

“Oriental hobby (Falco severus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/oriental-hobby.

BibTeX
@misc{oriental_hobby_2026,
  title = {Oriental hobby (Falco severus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/oriental-hobby},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}