Merlin?

[Frank Kolwicz]

Today I saw a bird that may have been a Merlin in a place where I've been seeing Kestrels for more than 5 years, but I can't find anything that lets me confirm it to my satisfaction. The only photos I have show only the frontal view with heavy streaking on the breast and the head with the "faint mustache" ascribed to Merlin. However, the Kestrels in that area have always been very timid and only rarely let me approach to within an impossibly long photo distance; this bird sat calmly and let me approach much closer and even let me reposition my car to get closer. Is that enough to solidify my ID?

Can anyone point me to a reference online that might help?

Frank
in Monmouth

[Lisa Millbank]

Hi Frank,

I bet you're right that it was a Merlin, they aren't too uncommon in winter.  They aren't too shy, so they probably wouldn't care about your car moving around.  They do fine in suburban areas and generally ignore people.  If we could see your photo it would be easier, but from the description, it sounds like you saw enough of the features.  One problem is that they can vary a lot in appearance and not match what is in the field guide very well, especially if the field guide only has a couple of examples to go by.  Almost all of the Merlins locally are of the "Taiga" subspecies, even most of the darker ones.  We may also get a small number of the "Black" subspecies (probably some of the reported Blacks are Taigas), but very few of the light "Prairie"/"Richardson's" subspecies.  Here's a decent gallery of Merlin photos, but a lot of ours are on the darker side. 

The dorsal coloration on the adult males around here can range from medium slaty-blue to very dark with a bluish cast, and females and immatures have a similar range of grayish-brown tones.  Even if you can't see that, the streaking on the underparts is usually pretty heavy on Taigas with a creamy/buffy to rusty undertone on the breast and belly, and the flanks have the heaviest dark streaking, with a pattern of light rounded spots.  The tail usually has 3 bands on top that may be slaty blue or tan depending on sex and age, but the bands are white on the underside of the tail.  Some Taigas have only 2 and some Blacks have none, or just partial bands.  Taigas have a prominent eyebrow marking, although Blacks may not show one.  The mustache is usually pretty faint as you mentioned, sometimes obscured on Blacks.

I don't think they are easily confused with other raptors, except that the lighter adult male Merlins could be confused with adult Sharp-shinned Hawks, and light female and immature Merlins look kind of like immature sharpies or possibly even a Prairie Falcon, despite the size and plumage differences.  The primaries of a perched Merlin come about two-thirds of the way to the tail tip while the sharpie's primaries come about one-third of the way down the tail, also, the Merlin has black eyes and a yellow orbital ring.

Lisa Millbank

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