[2][3][4] The first formal description of the Eurasian hobby was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the present binomial name Falco subbuteo.

[5] The genus name falco derives from Late Latin falx, falcis, a sickle, referring to the wing profile of the bird.

[9] Two subspecies are recognized:[10] Adults are slate-grey above with a dark crown and two short black moustache stripes.

Juveniles are generally much browner, with scaled upper parts and streaked buffy thighs and undertail coverts.

It is fast and powerful in flight and will take large insects, such as dragonflies, which it transfers from talons to beak and eats while soaring slowly in circles.

The tree selected is most often one in a hedge or on the extreme edge of a spinney, from where the bird can observe intruders from a considerable distance.