Merlin

Falco columbarius

HOW TO IDENTIFY:

* Length: 12 inches Wingspan: 23 inches
* Short, dark, hooked beak
* Small, long-tailed hawk
* Long, pointed wings, broad at the base
* Thin, pale black mustache mark
* Underwings checkered with black and white
* Juveniles and immature females like adult female
* Three distinct races occur in North America

Taiga Merlin (F. c. columbarius)

* Breeds in northern Canadian boreal forests from Newfoundland to Alaska and winters in the southern United States; migrants occur frequently along both coasts but are rare inland
* Flight feathers dark above
* Faint dark mustache mark

Adult male:

* Dark blue-gray back, paler than suckleyi but darker than richardsoni
* Dark tail has wide, complete, blue-gray bands

Adult female

* Dark, brownish back
* Brown tail has narrow, complete buffy bands

Prairie Merlin (F. c. richardsonii)

* Breeder and resident in prairies of south-central Canada and the upper Midwest of the United States with some moving south to New Mexico
* Large spots on flight feathers visible from above
* Lacks mustache mark

Adult male:

* Pale supercilium
* Pale brown cheeks
* Pale blue-gray back
* Blue gray tail with narrow black bands

Adult female:

* Pale supercilium
* Pale brown cheeks
* Pale brown back
* Complete white bands on brown tail

Black Merlin (F.c.suckleyi)

* Resident in upper Pacific Coast forests from British Colombia to Alaska, occasionally straying to New Mexico in winter
* Very dark back, wings and head
* Dark mustache mark
* Flight feathers dark above

Adult male:

* Blue-gray cast seen in good light
* Black tail with incomplete blue-gray bands

Adult female:

* Dark tail with very faint tail bands

Similar species:

American Kestrel is similar in size and shape, but has two mustache marks, reddish-brown about head, narrower wings and lacks checkerboard pattern of underwings. Peregrine is much larger with a much bolder mustache mark and not so strongly checkered underwings. Prairie Falcon has a bolder mustache mark, white between the eye and the mustache mark and black axillars.