Magical Merlins
Magical Merlins is a natural history book about one of North America’s least known birds of prey. The merlin is a small, migratory falcon whose numbers were decimated during the DDT era and whose remarkable population recovery has occurred primarily in urban areas. The text is science written for the lay public and addresses: breeding, migration, wintering behavior and winter range, subspecies and intergrading, foraging and roosting behavior, urban adaptations and range expansion. The plumage plates are especially helpful for merlin identification. It includes 35 illustrations (paintings, maps, and plates) along with 66 color photos.
As Editor and Chief Contributor, Bruce Haak has harnessed the intellectual, scientific, artistic, and literary power of four co-authors: N. John Schmitt, Joseph Buchanan, Kim McCormick, and Ben Vang-Johnson. Theirs is an impressive collaboration, coming from dedicated, detailed, thorough, consistent, and innovative field investigations. They know their subjects well through long hours of direct, firsthand experience. As with a scientific paper, Haak acknowledges and directs his readers to other significant works, but doesn’t rehash existing data. He presents new, unreported information that melds hard science and pure fun into an information-packed, but digestible book.
What merlins do is make small birds disappear. Not by magic, illusion, or garden-variety prestidigitation, but in spectacular aerial style in memorable demonstrations of speed, agility, and persistence. Merlins have been dropping human jaws in amazement for eons. They are, in a word, magical. The title is apt.
The text is supported by a rich selection of maps, paintings, and color photographs from six artists and twelve photographers. The artwork comes from of some of the brightest lights in this genre: Andrew Ellis. Hans Peeters, Carl Bass, Mark Upton, John Baker, and Andrew Haslen. The photos, drawings, and paintings vividly celebrate the visual appeal of these splendid little birds.
Within the broad categories of the three North American subspecies, merlins exhibit an endlessly fascinating variability in plumages. Some male merlins are delicately colored, like carefully hand-painted little porcelains. Some females are burly and robust, camouflaged like miniature gyrfalcons. N. John Schmitt compares remarkably detailed descriptions of merlin plumages with wide-ranging observations of other species, including gyrfalcons, peregrines, and sakers that makes the whole plumage conundrum clearer. He describes merlins with the precision of a meticulous mathematician and then shapes his observations into graphic encapsulations of birds that are, simply, dazzling.
Joseph Buchanan’s analyses of merlin hunting behavior will be of particular interest to birders, researchers, and falconers. These are high-energy, hyperactive birds and nothing in the merlin world is static. Merlins are constantly changing, evolving, and adapting to their environments. For example, somewhat less affected by DDT than the larger, longer-lived peregrines, merlins persisted in areas where peregrines had disappeared. Not just persisted, but became the new apex predators. Free of competition from, and the danger of being caught by peregrines, estuary- and beach-hunting merlins developed new tactics of hunting shorebirds. The shorebirds changed their defensive tactics, too. With the return of healthy peregrine populations, merlins again shifted to different hunting behavior that allowed them to evade their larger cousins but still exploit the shorebird food resource. The shorebirds’ survival tactics shifted again as well. How fascinating to see natural adaptation and behavioral evolution across such a brief time frame.
Merlins have gone from being a species of concern and an occupant of the National Audubon Society’s “blue list” to a common breeding bird across a variety of habitats, notably, urban habitats. The tapestry Haak weaves suggests merlins are in their own golden age. Greater numbers of merlins are now exploiting a wider variety of habitats, especially urban habitats. And they do it by adopting a “whatever it takes” approach to hunting and survival.
This story takes us from the high desert of Idaho to the shores and estuaries of the Pacific Northwest to the tall firs and city lights of Seattle in search of answers to the many questions surrounding this species. Along the way we gain new information about merlin migration and population dynamics, habitat preferences and range boundaries, along with the merlin’s ability to adapt and thrive in a large urban environment.
Like all good scientific investigators, Haak’s team uncovers more new questions for every answer they suggest. He invites us to join them in scratching their heads and pondering future research needs. Why do North American merlins exploit urban environments, while European birds seem to actively shun them? Why did merlins in the Green River country of southwestern Wyoming disappear when DDT was no longer a problem, and merlins seemingly everywhere else were thriving? How will lead and mercury contamination affect merlins in the future? How are they picking up these contaminants? How will changing land use patterns and practices affect them? Will more and more merlins winter in northern cities and/or remain on breeding grounds year-round instead of migrating to warmer, more favorable climes?
Our journey ends with an exploration of merlin research taking place in the rest of North America and Bruce’s final thoughts about merlin ecology and the problems and possibilities that lie ahead for this special species.
