Overview

Merlin: Small falcon with blue-gray upperparts, white to pale brown underparts with dark streaks. Throat, eye-ring, line above eye are white. Dark gray bill, cere is yellow. Tail is brown or black barred with white tips. Pacific race is dark gray. Prairie race is light gray. Taiga race is a mixture.

Range and Habitat

Merlin: Breeds from Alaska east through Mackenzie to Newfoundland and south to Wyoming, Montana, and northeastern Maine. Spends winters mainly in the southern U.S. north along the west coast up to British Columbia and on the east coast to southern New England. Preferred habitats include coniferous forests.

Breeding and Nesting

Merlin: Two to seven white eggs sometimes marked with red brown are laid in a tree cavity without nesting materials added; occasionally uses a rocky ledge or abandoned crow nest. Incubation ranges from 28 to 32 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Merlin: Preys mainly on small birds such as larks, swallows, finches, and occasionally ptarmigan; also eats small mammals, lizards, snakes, and insects, especially dragonflies.

Vocalization

Merlin: Generally silent, but will emit a high, loud cackle that sounds like "klee-klee-klee."

Similar Species

Merlin: American Kestrel has two moustache stripes, red-brown head, narrower wings, and lacks the checkerboard pattern of underwings. Peregrine Falcon is much larger with bolder moustache stripe and less checkered underwings. Prairie Falcon has a bolder moustache stripe, white between eye and moustache stripe, and black axillars.