The “Prairie” or “Richardson's” Merlin is found in the center of the continent and is the lightest in color, with females having a pencil-lead-gray back and the males blue-gray backs. The “Black” Merlin of the Pacific Coast region is mostly dark charcoal in color, solid on the back, wings, and tail. Three distinctive subspecies nest in Canada and the United States. This talented aerialist also terrorizes sandpiper, songbird, and pigeon flocks indeed, its scientific name means “pigeon-like falcon” or “pigeon falcon.” Its common name was once Pigeon Hawk. Merlins also nab bats leaving their roost caves and prey on large insects including dragonflies. They also pick off songbirds as small as the Yellow Warbler, be it on breeding grounds, during migration, or where they winter. Instead, they power up in horizontal flight, plowing into murmurations of starlings, clouds of sandpipers, and strong-flying pigeon flocks at speeds topping 30 miles per hour. Unlike the Peregrine Falcon, they don't usually dive or “stoop” on their prey. In the wild, Merlins mostly hunt other birds. After about a month in the nest, the young birds may linger from a week to a month, being fed by their parents. He brings in most of the food, which the female transfers to the young. During this time the male fends off intruders, vigorously chasing off crows and other large birds. Once the eggs hatch, the female broods the young for about a week. A Merlin pair may also nest on a cliff or on the ground under heavy vegetative cover, or, rarely, in a tree cavity. The nest is often high in a tree, frequently a conifer, and usually in a fairly open situation. A former crow or hawk nest is usually adopted, then perhaps barely modified before the female lays four or five rust-colored eggs marked with dark splotches. When it comes to nesting, Merlins choose their site carefully but do little nest-building or modification. Merlin pairs may stay together for several seasons. Females will beg food from males, with food transferred both in the air and at the perch. Pairs share rocking glides and circling and soaring sessions. Merlin pairs bond through varied courtship displays, including powerful flights and dives and fluttering flights by the male. Fans included Mary Queen of Scots and Russia's Catherine the Great. Medieval falconers called the Merlin the “Lady's Hawk,” and royalty prized this small raptor for hunting Eurasian Skylarks and other avian prey. The wizard named Merlin, on the other hand, got his name from the Welsh name Myrddin he was named after a real-life bard who was part of the inspiration for the mystical character perpetuated in King Arthur legends. The shape-shifting wizard of legend might seem an apt inspiration for the Merlin's name, but instead, it comes from the French word esmerillon, meaning falcon. “In the air, the difference between a Merlin and an American Kestrel is not a matter of degrees, it is quantum.” “The Merlin is to an American Kestrel what a Harley-Davidson motorcycle is to a bicycle,” wrote bird authorities Pete Dunne, David Sibley, and Clay Sutton in their seminal book Hawks in Flight. A formidable bird-hunter about the same length as the related American Kestrel, the Merlin is more powerfully built and seems far larger - more like a miniature Peregrine Falcon.
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