ID Quiz - April 26, 2020

It's a Merlin!

It should be fairly obvious that this is a raptor/bird of prey, so we just need to narrow it down to which. A lot of juvenile hawks have dark streaking, but notice the dark eyes and angular posture… it's not a hawk at all; it's a falcon. That narrows it to 3 likely options in Pennsylvania. The weak facial pattern and tail pattern rule out American Kestrel and Peregrine Falcon, leaving us with just Merlin out of the likely options. The weak mustache, dark streaking and the black tail with narrow white bands fit that species perfectly.

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