Merlin population (the bird, not the wizard) increasing in region
If you have heard an incessant high pitch screech from a bird overhead it might have been a merlin.
“Merlins are actually a falcon. A very small, fast flying, falcon,” said Philip Horch member of the Grasslands Naturalists Society and chair of one of their birding committees. “Some people would know them as pigeon-hawks.”
It is particularly interesting to watch merlins fly for their great aerial skills.
They are powerful fliers, but you can tell them from larger falcons by their rapid wingbeats and overall dark tones, according to The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s website.
They are a little bigger than a robin, about 10 inches long and have a two-foot wingspan, said Horch. They are very noisy birds with a high pitch sound. The males are grey in colour while the females are mainly brown.
Their numbers have been increasing in this area. In the May bird count in 2012 and 2013 four were counted around here. From 2014 to 2016 a total of seven were counted each year, according to Grasslands Naturalists.
“They feed on other smaller birds and they will pluck them right out of the air or pick them off the ground or off a branch. They will also take it right out of the nest,” said Horch. “They will even capture a bird as large as our pigeons around town.”
In fact merlins are generally attracted to bird feeders in back yards because it is an ideal spot to take out birds enjoying the grain in feeders, said Horch.
“It is one of the birds that might be attracted to your birdfeeder for the wrong reasons,” said Horch. “If a merlin shows up, the birds are going to disappear from your birdfeeder.”
They tend to favour residential areas where there are mature trees, said Horch. Sometimes they will nest on the ground in open country or make use of an abandoned nest of a different bird such as crows. Breeding takes place in April and May with four to six eggs in a nest. Any young ones from this year are already actively flying so the numbers of merlins increases at this time of year.
Merlins typically do not dive-bomb people but they could be aggressive if they felt their nest was under threat, said Horch.
A few may hang around here for the winter but generally they go to the southern U.S. and as far south as Mexico. They appear to return each spring to the nest they had the previous year, said Horch.