A Merlin arrives early on the Wildcat ridge
September 2, 2026
A turned up along the Rifle Range Trail at Wildcat Canyon Regional Park on August 29. Merlins don't nest in California. They breed far to the north and reach the Bay Area only as fall migrants and winter visitors, so a bird on an East Bay ridge in late summer is one that has just come a long way.It is a small falcon that hunts by outright speed. Rather than threading through branches like a Sharp-shinned Hawk, a Merlin works from a watch perch or flies low and fast over open ground, then closes on a small bird and takes it in mid-air. A miss doesn't necessarily end it: the falcon will tail-chase, firing off short repeat attacks, or climb after the bird in a rising spiral duel that falconers call a ringing flight. Pairs have been seen flushing flocks toward one another, one bird driving the birds into the other's path.Size puts it in kestrel territory, and that is where most people get it wrong. A Merlin is bulkier and darker than an American Kestrel, with fast piston-like wingbeats and a heavy flight that sinks on the glide instead of floating, and it lacks the kestrel's bold facial mustache marks. The kestrel is here year round; the Merlin isn't. Against a Sharp-shinned Hawk, look at the wingtips and tail: pointed wingtips and a dark tail crossed by narrow white bands on the Merlin, rounded wingtips and no white tail bands on the accipiter. It builds no nest of its own anywhere in its range, taking over an old crow, hawk or magpie nest on the breeding grounds instead.Its food is small birds, sparrows chief among them, and that is what the open grassland and coyote brush of the Wildcat ridge is good for. , , Savannah Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos have all been reported around the hills and the bay shoreline in the past two weeks, and Townsend's and Wilson's Warblers came in on migration at Lafayette Reservoir on September 1. A bird that hunts by running down other birds in open air has plenty to work with here right now.
