The hobby is a migratory falcon that hunts dragonflies and swifts over open water and farmland, facing welfare challenges from prey declines and habitat degradation.
Hobbies face welfare pressures from reduced prey availability in intensively farmed landscapes. Dragonfly declines from wetland drainage reduce the abundant prey that adults need during late summer to build condition before migration. Agricultural pesticide use reduces flying invertebrate abundance, forcing hobbies to work harder to find food with higher energetic costs. Late-breeding hobbies face the challenge of raising chicks through the late summer insect decline, with food shortages in poor years causing chick starvation. Illegal persecution, though less common for hobbies than for larger raptors, still occurs occasionally.