Two Australian Hobby chicks were discovered by Tom at Cooorabell following a severe storm in the evening of 4th December. One chick had landed on a roof and the other on a concrete path.
WIRES volunteer Andrew responded to the call and took the chicks to Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital where the chicks were examined. A full check-up revealed no underlying injuries.
The chicks were taken into WIRES care for observation and after a few days brought back to Tom’s property to be reunited with the parent birds.
Their nest was much too high to reach so a new nest was created and WIRES volunteer Andrew is seen here placing it as high as possible in the tree.
Tom kept an eye on the chicks in the nest and informed us that it did not take long before the parent birds were back attending to their chicks, the family was safely back together.
Australian Hobby or Little Falcon as they are commonly known, are one of our smallest falcon species. They are acrobatic flyers as they catch birds and flying insects and seldom land on the ground. They will often use old nests of other species such as crows and ravens.
The Australian Hobby is widespread throughout mainland Australia as well as in Tasmania inhabiting lightly timbered landscapes, especially open forests and woodlands or mosaics of trees and open areas, including wooded farmland, timbered wetlands and well-vegetated suburbs.
Thank you Tom for calling WIRES and thank you Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital for your continued support.
Pictures by Melanie Barsony and Deborah Pearce