MERLINS

      Fast and powerful fliers to catch small birds in mid-air, merlins are exciting to see in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania cropland, which I do occasionally during their April and October migrations.  These handsome, dove-sized falcons, related to peregrines, are wild, exciting additions to the prairies, shorelines and human-made farmland of the United States when they migrate north to their nesting areas and south to their wintering places.  During those spring and fall months in Lancaster County farmland, I see them perched on roadside poles and wires to watch for horned larks, starlings, sparrows and other kinds of small birds, or zipping swiftly and low across fields to scare up those same birds in fields.  Merlins also sweep quickly over mud flats and beaches to chase up sandpipers and plovers, to catch one of those shorebirds at a time.    

     Merlins are built for catching small birds on the wing in open habitats.  They have long, pointed, swept-back wings that enable swift flight, and quick reflexes.  They are heavily streaked, which camouflages them in the open and enables them to better ambush birds that don't see them coming. 

     A successful species, merlins raise young across the northern hemisphere, including in Alaska, Canada and Eurasia, with a world-wide population of up to one million individuals.  Being opportunistic hunters that exploit what prey is available and abundant is a good part of their success.  And they are adaptable enough to take advantage of human-made fields to have additional winter hunting grounds in the open habitats they prefer.           

     Some pairs of merlins raise young in the abandoned, stick-platform nurseries of crows, magpies and hawks in trees in the open areas of northern woods.  Other merlins hatch offspring in cavities on cliffs or in tree hollows.  Each female merlin lays three to five eggs in her nest and both parents feed the resulting youngsters.  Some recently fledged merlins are preyed on by Cooper's hawks and peregrine falcons.  But adult merlins have few enemies.

     Being adaptable, merlins' wintering numbers are increasing in fields where many horned larks live and in cities where house sparrows reside abundantly the year around.  Both those habitats are human-made, so people are unwittingly helping to increase the populations of this beautiful falcon that winter in those habitats to catch and ingest small birds.  

     Merlins are attractive, dashing falcons that prey on small birds in open habitats.  Not everybody will see these wonderful hawks, but it's exciting to know they exist in human-made and natural habitats.  

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