Observers: D.Parker
Email: j.parker@cebridge.net
Verification: MONO
Remote Name: 72.47.2.108
Date: 11/08/2007
Time: 12:41 PM -0500
Reading in "A Photographic Guide to North American Raptors" by Wheeler and Clark, 1996, they note that female and juvenile merlins look alike so this could be a juvenile bird. Also on our bird, the mustache mark seems to be more pronounced on one side of the head than the other. Some pale edgings to the primaires are evident. A Prairie Falcon would be much paler than our bird. A Peregrine Falcon would show the primaries extending to the tailtip whereas in our bird they fall obviously short. It's not an Accipter because their wingtips fall very short of the tail, a good way to separate them from falcons. We got to see our Merlin fly and its wings were pointed at the tip like a falcon and it flew fast, a habit of Merlins!