WHAT SUBSPECIES is MERLIE THE MERLIN?
(Falco columbarius)
After looking more closely at Merlie, I must conclude that he is of the Taiga (F.c. columbarius) subspecies. This took some time waiting for a sunny day, and for him to turn so I could see his tail. He almost always sits sideways, or facing my scope.He has an eyebrow (supercillium) that only extends to the back of the eye (Black Merlins, F.c. suckleyi, are supposed to have little or no supercillium, while the supercillium for the Prairie Merlin, F.c. richardsonii, extends to the back of the head). Merlie's back appears black, but the streaks on the chest are brownish (the colors depend upon the lighting, of course; in the absence of sun, he looks black all over).
Besides the very small white terminal band, four other whitish tail bands are seen. The fourth one is way up his tail, and was only visible because of a peculiar preening stance (Black Merlins have grayish tail bands that are pale, Prairie Merlins have broad white tail bands).
Merlie's "background" leg feathers (i.e., not the streaks) are more brownish in the sun than the chest (not a particular identifying mark, except perhaps to distinguish him from F.c. richardsonii).
This then brings me to a quandary, because I believe that the Merlin in previous year's was much blacker, or did I really only look at him in the absence of sunlight? Could there be more than one Merlie? I have never seen two Merlins at once, except several years ago when I had a female Merlin (brown all over) on my fence at the same time that Merlie was on his tree. I have never seen another Merlin joust with the Merlin on the tree, and I make many observations (Merlie's tree is outside of our living room window wall, which is between the two main areas of our house). I must admit that I do not look closely at him each time, just enough to identify that it is a Merlin so that I can enter the sighting in my log book.
While my Literature Survey of 22 bird books (mostly by Eastern authors) left me with the conclusion that the Black Merlin (F.c. suckleyi) was the most common on the West Coast. The report by Brian Walton, of the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group, who has been observing merlins in California for over 30 years, says that the most common Merlin here is the Taiga (F.c. columbarius) subspecies. It seems prudent to go with the local expert. As he says, "The columbarius merlins are quite variable. Just because a bird is dark does not make it a suckleyi."
Well, I guess that this is yet another example of jumping to a premature conclusion about the identification of a bird. Identifying a bird species is difficult enough sometimes, and identifying a subspecies is an even greater challenge. I should have looked at ALL the markings.
So that I can continue my research, I would ask that when people report their sightings of Merlins on South Bay Birds, that they try to identify the subspecies (and this is not all that easy from a casual observation), but please RECORD THE TIME OF THE SIGHTING. If this time coincides with a time that Merlie is sitting on his tree, then I will know that the reported sighting is not Merlie. On the other hand, this may help me find out where Merlie goes when he is not here on his tree.
Thanks,
Kendric