whatever your hobby, this is a Hobby

your are excused, raptors can be difficult to separate. This one is a Hobby. I believe it is a juvenile judging by the underbody, which is missing the adult’s ‘arrowheads’. The head pattern is striking, no other Australian bird of prey has it. Nevertheless the Hobby may be confused with a Peregrine, but the latter has a large dark hood, and is not rufous on the underparts. Brown Falcon seems to me further away. Their underparts are not as strongly marked, flight feathers and tail are much lighter, and the Brown Falcon has brown ‘thighs’, or brown ’shorts’ perhaps, contrasting with the beige surrounding feathers, and legs!

Don’t despair, and don’t give up.

Merry Christmas

Jonny