[Oehoe]

I don't know my raptors well.


Merlin? by Leonide Shoujun Ye Gauthier, on Flickr

[birdergirl]

Yep!

Cheers,
Mel

[Oehoe]

Thank you, Mel. A few more questions: is the subspecies the coastal forest merlin (f.c. suckleyi)? Are they sexual dimorphic beyond their sizes? I was wondering about its sex.

[birdergirl]

Hi do you have a field guide? I highly recommend one to help you out as you learn to ID birds since you are getting into the hobby. I recommed this book https://www.amazon.ca/Stokes-Field-Guid ... th+america

To answer your question, this is a male Merlin of the Taiga race and yes the females do not have the blue cap and back but appear brown and streaky as viewed in the link below.

More info on them here:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Merlin/id

They are stunning little falcons. Nice shot of him.

Cheers,
Mel

[Oehoe]

Yes, I have a guide to southwestern BC birds, but I plan to buy one that covers all of BC or North America. Thank you for the recommendation.