Merlin

Another magic bird of prey with a wizard’s name. It is Europe's smallest falcon of the open countryside. The Merlin has for centuries been a favourite falconry bird with its ability to catch small birds. Being small, in medieval times, they considered it a lady's falcon.

The Merlin has a typical falcon shape with triangular pointed wings. It is smaller than a Kestrel and not much bigger than a potbellied Mistle Thrush. It is easy to tell apart from a Kestrel as it doesn't hover. Merlins have a blue-grey back and a rusty streaked breast. Their pointed wings are dark at the ends and there is a striking black band at the end of the tail. The female is larger and has a browner back. Merlins fly close to the ground in a direct dashing flight with short powerful wing beats followed by a glide.

Merlins usually hunt alone, chasing small birds with agile twists and turns and catching them in the air. It is a fantastic, fast and magical chase to watch. Typical prey includes Skylarks, Meadow Pipits, Chaffinches and Thrushes. They will also feed on voles, bats, moths, and beetles. Merlins rely on their speed and agility, flying fast and low, typically less than one metre above the ground, using trees and large shrubs as cover before taking their prey by surprise.

Merlin breeding occurs typically in May or June. They nest on the ground amongst moorland heather or in old crow nests. Both Mum and dad incubate the 3-5 eggs which hatch after 28 days. Initially, mum tends the young while dad gets the food, issuing a "kek, kek, kek" call near the nest. After 18 days, the young Merlins leave the nest and hide somewhere nearby. They can fly at 25 days and depend on mum and dad for a further 4 weeks. Crows are the primary threat to the eggs and nestlings, though in general carnivorous birds avoid Merlins because of their aggressiveness and agility. Their desire to drive larger raptors away from their territory is so pronounced that it is an identifying characteristic.

There are 1300 pairs in Britain. In winter, they move south from their moorland breeding grounds to lowland areas like coastal salt marshes. Some Merlins from Northern Europe also overwinter here. By far the most serious long-term threat to these birds is habitat destruction, especially in their moorland breeding areas. They need tall heather and are vulnerable to over management by burning or sheep grazing. Like so many birds of prey, they are specially protected.

Their Latin name is 'falco columbarius' where 'falco' derives from the Latin 'falx' or 'falcis' for a sickle, referring to the claws of falcons and 'columbarius' is Latin for 'of doves' from 'columba' meaning 'dove'. The English name Merlin is derived from Anglo-Norman 'merilun' or 'meriliun'. They are also known as a 'pigeon hawk' from their bird catching ability.

Hobby

A Hobby is a fairly small, spectacular, fast flying falcon with long, narrow wings that wears red trousers. It is a summer visitor of open fields and woodland, often seen over flooded gravel pits.

It looks like an oversized Swift with its sickle-shaped wings. It is the size of a Kestrel but more rakish, with long pointed wings and a short tail. The Hobby is dark blue-grey above and sports a black moustache on its white cheeks. It is thickly streaked below with reddish flanks and red under the tail that makes it look like it is wearing rusty red trousers. It is the natty dresser of the falcon world. Both sexes look the same though, as with many birds of prey, the female is slightly bigger and bossier. Hobbies are elegant flyers that have power and speed, capable of rapid acceleration and breath-taking turns when catching prey.

The Hobby is the only bird of prey that regularly feeds on large insects, which it catches in flight with its feet, and eats while slowly soaring in circles. Big juicy dragonflies are a favourite, followed closely by grasshoppers and moths. It will also eat small birds. The Hobby is so agile it can even catch Swallows, House Martins and bats. Swallows and House Martins have a characteristic "hobby" alarm call when one is about. It is fast enough to rob other predators, like Kestrels, of their catches.

Hobby courtship starts in May with dramatic soaring and diving aerobatics. This is quite late compared to other migrant birds. It nests in mature trees, using the old nests of other birds like crows. The only time you will hear a Hobby is when it gives a "kew, kew, kew" call in the vicinity of its nest. The 2-4 eggs are laid in late in June and hatch after 28 days. Mum does most of the incubation while dad brings the food and occasionally relieves her when she fancies a wing stretch. The youngsters can fly 28 days later but depend on their parents for a month. It is thought that Hobbies lay their eggs late, so many inexperienced young birds are about for food when the youngsters are ready to fly and learning to feed. With their late start, there is only time for them to have one brood.

The Hobby is a summer visitor, found mainly in England, though a rare few get as far as Scotland. There are 3,000 pairs and it is specially protected as liking to eat small birds has not made it a friend of gamekeepers. Its current biggest threat is egg thieves. The oldest known Hobby lived for 15 years, though the average life span is usually 5 years.

The Latin is 'falco subbuteo' where 'falco' derives from the Latin 'falx' or 'falcis' for a sickle, referring to the claws of falcons and 'subbuteo' is from the Latin 'sub' for 'near to' and 'buteo' for 'buzzard'. A falcon near to a Buzzard. The English name comes from Old French 'hobé' or 'hobet'. Interestingly, the inventor of the tabletop football game called it 'Subbuteo' because the Hobby was his favourite bird.

Hen Harrier

A male Hen Harrier elegantly flying, like a grey ghost, back and forth above a misty moorland is a sight that, once seen, is never forgotten. They are a hunter of the open uplands, keeping as far away from people as possible.

The Hen Harrier is a slender bird of prey, smaller than a Buzzard. The male is a ghostly blue-grey with long black, fingered wing tips, a long tail, a white rump (like a House Martin), and white underparts. Females are larger and dark brown. They have an owl-like appearance on their face. Their flight is buoyant and low, just one or two metres above the ground, as they quarter (zigzag) the ground for something to eat, holding their wings in a shallow V.

Hen Harriers use their ears as well as their eyes to find prey amongst the dense moorland vegetation. They eat small mammals and birds, making them the enemy of gamekeepers - who sometimes illegally kill them for eating their grouse and partridge chicks.

When courting, the male performs a spectacular sky dance, passing food to the female in the air or dropping it for her to catch. A male has a territory of more than a square kilometre and might have multiple partners. Where a male has mated with several females, all the nests tend to be close to one another as he is a bit lazy and doesn't want to go too far when delivering food to his ladies. Nesting begins in April and the nest is made of a pile of heather on the ground. The 4-6 eggs hatch after 30 days and are incubated by the female while the male brings things to eat. The eggs are laid one or two days apart so there is a noticeable age gap between the young. After two weeks the youngsters are big enough to be left on their own, and both parents hunt for food. They are able to fly 35 days later but stay with mum for several weeks to learn all about quartering. Hen Harriers are silent apart from when approaching a nest when they make a yikkering call.

There are 600 pairs of Hen Harriers in Britain and they are specially protected. Their number plummeted as a result of persecution in Victorian times and they were almost completely exterminated. They still face large threats from illegal persecution by gamekeepers and egg collectors. Planting of conifer forests on moorlands has also restricted the available habitat that they need. The Hen Harrier is partially migrant as northern birds move south and all birds leave their moorland breeding areas for lowland or coastal areas in winter where they may be joined by others from the continent. Large groups of Hen Harriers can gather in a single roost.

Their Latin name is 'circus cyaneus' where 'circus' is derived from Ancient Greek 'kirkos' for 'circle' which refers to a Hen Harrier's circling flight (and also where we get circus from as circus rings are traditionally round). The 'cyaneus' is Latin for 'dark-blue'. The English name Hen Harrier comes from the fact that they once used to hunt free-range hens! Female Hen Harriers are also known as 'ringtails' because of their distinctive tail banding.

White-tailed Eagle

The White-tailed Eagle is huge! It is an eagle of the sea. It is the largest eagle in Europe and the fourth largest eagle in the world, resembling a flying barn door with a big beak. Being so big, it is a bit of a playground bully, pinching food from other birds and throwing its weight about.

The White-tailed Eagle is brown with a long-looking pale head, a white tail, and a big, mean, hooked yellow bill (that is clearly visible even in flight). The wings are broad with obvious fingered tips. It has a short wedge-shaped tail, and the head protrudes when flying. Their flight is like a Heron's with shallow wing beats followed by a long glide. It soars with its wings held flat, which differs from the Buzzard's V-shape, though its barn door size is difficult to miss.

They can spend 90% of the time perched or standing on the ground looking mean, especially if the weather is poor. The males are slightly smaller than the females. They moult slowly and continuously throughout the year so they can always fly or pick on people they don't like. Their call is a dog like yapping "kew, kew, kew" with most calls being made during courtship or near their nest.

White-tailed Eagles are carrion feeders and opportunistic hunters, stealing food from other birds and even mugging otters! They will hunt singly or in pairs and, being such enormous birds, they like big prey. They normally eat fish like cod, herring or trout, but will also eat birds like ducks and gulls, and medium-sized mammals. When fishing, they fly low over the water, stop to hover for a moment, then drop to snatch a fish from the surface.

White-tailed Eagles pair for life and perform a stunning sky dance when courting where they touch talons. They build their nest in a large tree or on a cliff edge, making it from large sticks and driftwood, then lining it with grass and seaweed. A nest can be reused for many years and gets huge with the yearly added material. Two eggs are laid in April which are incubated by mum and hatch 38 days later. Both parents care for the young who can fly after 70 days. They are fed for a further month until they are ready to leave home. The young eagles will roam widely to find a place of their own.

The White-tailed Eagle suffered a massive decline because of persecution in Victorian times and nesting failures caused by various chemical pesticides and organic compounds. It is now specially protected and has been reintroduced in Scotland, where there is now a small population of 150 pairs that is growing slowly. Some threats still remain, notably illegal persecution by gamekeepers, the activities of egg thieves and fatal damage to birds from wind turbines.

Their Latin name is 'haliaeetus albicilla' where 'haliaeetus' means 'sea-eagle', from the Ancient Greek 'hali' for 'sea' and 'aetos' for 'eagle'. The 'albicilla' part means 'white-tailed' from the Latin 'albi' for 'white' and 'cilla' for 'tail'.

Golden Eagle

The Golden Eagle is mainly found in the remote Scottish mountains. Gamekeepers and egg collectors almost persecuted it to extinction, but it is now specially protected and numbers are slowly increasing. In their natural environment, Golden Eagles are fairly long-living, often reaching the ripe old age of thirty-two.

The Golden Eagle is much larger than a Buzzard, in fact it is nearly twice the size. They are a uniform dark brown with a yellow brown head and looking all dark from below (unlike a Buzzard). They have a wingspan of over two metres and their tail and head protrudes prominently when flying. Their flight is slow and laboured with deep wingbeats, though the Golden Eagle mostly soars and glides, holding their wings in a shallow ‘V’ where their fingered wing tips are obvious to see. They have massive yellow feet, perfect for catching medium-sized animals. The female is bigger than the male and the youngsters differ from their parents by having white patches on their wings and tail. It takes a young Golden Eagle seven years to reach its full adult plumage. For a bird that is so big, they make very little noise, using their excellent eyesight to find a mate instead of calling for one. The only sound they ever make is a rare yelping “kyek” call.

Golden Eagles hunt during daylight hours. They often go for days without food then have a huge feast. They eat mammals (like mountain hares, rabbits, squirrels, and young foxes), birds (like grouse, crows, and gulls) and carrion. Golden Eagles maintain some of the largest known territories of any bird species, which can be as big as 200 square km!

They are monogamous and remain together for life. The courtship includes undulating display flights by both birds. The male picks up a piece of rock or a small stick and drops it, then enters into a steep dive to catch it in mid-air, repeating this three or more times. In response, the female takes a clump of earth, drops it and catches it in the same fashion. So, she gets a nice rock, and he gets dirt. Pretty normal relationship then.

An Eagle’s nest, called an ‘eyrie’, is an extensive structure of branches, usually built on a cliff ledge. Two eggs are laid some days apart in March and mum does most of the incubation. Each egg hatches after 43 days. If there is not enough food available, the elder chick will kill the younger one, so it is common for only one chick to be raised. It pays to be nice to your older brother or sister. Both mum and dad feed what chicks there are. The youngsters can fly after 65 days. The parents will carry on feeding them for a further 3 months until, by autumn, they are fully independent. The young Golden Eagles wander widely until they establish a territory for themselves. This can take up to four or five years.

The Golden Eagle is mainly resident with only the young wandering from the breeding site. There are 440 pairs distributed in the wilder parts of Scotland. Their Latin name is ’aquila chrysaetos’ where ’aquila’ is Latin for ‘eagle’ and ’chrysaetos’ is Ancient Greek for ‘golden eagle’ from ’khrusos’, ‘gold’ and ’aetos’, ‘eagle’. Double eagle in case you forgot how big they are.

Kestrel

The Kestrel is best known for its hovering, like a harrier jump jet, above motorway verges and railway embankments. It is a pigeon sized falcon with a short neck, long wings, and long tail. The male Kestrel has a grey head, spotted chestnut back, grey tail with a black band, and buff underparts with dark spots. The wings are held straight in flight with a contrasting light inner wing and dark outer wing, giving them a black tipped look. The female Kestrel is slightly larger, has a more barred back, more streaked breast, and a brown head. You mainly hear Kestrels when they are being mobbed, issuing a yikkering "ke ke ke" call.

The Kestrel hunts for food in daylight and at dusk, hovering with its tail fanned and wings flapping or holding position effortlessly in a head wind. They drop from the sky or perch to feed on shrews, mice, moles, baby rabbits, chicks of ground-nesting birds and especially voles (particularly the yummy short-tailed ones). They will also eat large insects. When a tasty morsel is sighted, the Kestrel glides gently down and at the last-minute lifts its wings above its back to pounce on to its prey. The Kestrel can see near ultraviolet light, allowing it to detect the urine trails around rodent burrows (as they shine in the ultraviolet part of sunlight) like a pee seeking missile. The average Kestrel needs to eat 4-8 voles a day.

Kestrels nest in barns, holes in trees or the disused nests of larger birds. It does not build a nest of its own as such. When the 4-6 eggs are laid, both parents will sit on the eggs which hatch after 30 days. Mum looks after the kids for the first 14 days, letting dad know all about it by issuing a very quarrelsome "wik wik wik wik" call. Once the youngsters get a little bigger, they are fed by both parents. They fly after 30 days but rely on mum and dad for a further month while learning to hunt and hover. The youngsters need to eat 3-4 voles each per day to, so feeding a family of 6 is a lot of voles (24)! On average, only 2-3 chicks usually survive.

The Kestrel is a widespread, sedentary resident with about 50,000 pairs in Britain. It is scarce in mountain and urban areas. Sadly, like so many birds of prey, the Kestrel is in decline. Modern farming leaves less land to support the voles and small mammals they eat. The name Kestrel comes from the French 'crecelle' meaning 'rattle' - a reference to its yikkering call. The Latin name is 'falco tinnunculus' where 'falco' derives from 'falcis' for 'sickle' because of the shape of the claws and 'tinnunculus' from 'tinnulus' meaning 'shrill'. An archaic name for a Kestrel is a windhover which sums it up perfectly. I have no idea why we went all French.

Swift

Swifts are the supersonic fighter jets of the birds. They are scimitar winged, aerial masters. They can cruise at 26 mph, their default speed, but when screaming across the sky they can get competitive and, by radically altering their aerodynamics, can reach speeds of up to 69 mph. This makes them the fastest bird recorded in straight and level flight. Like a supersonic fighter, they can even hold this speed when flying upwards with their afterburners on. Only Peregrine falcons are faster, but they cheat by using gravity to gain speed in a stoop.

A Swift is all sooty brown and looks black from a distance (and you usually see them high up or flashing past). They have a pale throat and stiff, narrow scythe like wings. The tail is forked. Their tiny legs (undercarriage) are forward pointing so they can only hang onto a rough surface and are unable to grasp a perch. You will not see Swifts on wires or branches, only in excitedly screaming squadrons racing across the sky.

Swifts feed on insects including flying beetles, flies, hover flies, moths, butterflies, flying ants, lacewings, and airborne spiders, catching up to 10,000 a day! When flying around in Central and Southern Africa, Swifts will range widely in search of food and will go out of their way to avoid storms.

Swifts arrive here in early May and are gone again by August. As time is short, they nest soon after arriving. They breed in old buildings with access to the roof space or cracks in cliffs. They make a shallow cup of straw and other material that has been gathered while flying. They lay 2 or 3 eggs which hatch after 19 days. The young can fly 42 days later once they have finished flight school. The young pilots are independent on leaving the nest and immediately migrate back to Africa in their smart uniforms. Incredibly, they will remain airborne for the first 2 years of their flying career before settling down to nesting. Swifts can even sleep while flying! Nobody is quite sure how they do this. Swifts only stop flying when on their nests.

There are 80,000 pairs of Swifts in Britain, but this number is declining through loss of nest sites as modern houses have no access to their roof spaces, like old houses do, and many old houses are being modernised. It is important to fit Swift bricks and boxes on your house to help them. Their Latin name is 'apus apus' which is derived from the Greek 'apous' meaning 'footless', a reference to their small, weak legs. Swifts are often depicted without feet in old paintings, pottery and heraldic shields.

Common Buzzard

Buzzards, like Red Kites, have also been making a comeback after years of persecution by gamekeepers and the impact of pesticides severely affecting them. They also suffered a sharp decline in the 1950s when large numbers of rabbits, their favourite food, died from myxomatosis.

Usually seen singly or in pairs, they are larger than a Carrion Crow and can be a bit variable in plumage but have a couple of giveaway traits. They have a slightly streaky brown back, paler underparts and a hooked beak you don't want to mess with. They often have a giveaway faint, pale crescent on their breast. They are easiest to recognise when flying with their short neck, broad 'fingered' wings held in a characteristic V-shape, and short barred tail that looks like a rounded fan. The wings are pale underneath with a black rear edge. The youngsters are paler and streakier than the adults and the female is slightly larger than the male. As well as soaring and gliding on their wide V-shaped wings, they can hover like a Kestrel using slow wing beats. Although you mainly seen them when flying, Buzzards are a bit lazy and spend a lot of time perched on posts or trees, ready to swoop down on any prey that is silly enough to get too close. Their cat like mewing call "meee-ooo" can be heard all year round and especially on sunny days.

For a Buzzard, if it moves and is not too big, they will eat it. They feed on small mammals (like voles), insects, worms, and carrion (dead animals), but their favourite food is a tasty baby rabbit.

Buzzards build their nests in trees or on crags. The nest is made of sticks lined with bracken and moss. A pair of Buzzards will often re-use the same nest over many years. In April or May, 2 to 4 eggs are laid at 2 day intervals and hatch after 35 days. Mum does the bulk of the egg sitting while dad gets the bunny takeaways. The young are fed in the nest by both parents until they can fly 50 days later. They stay dependent on mum and dad for food for a further 40 days until they have got the hang of skinning rabbits.

The Buzzard is mainly resident and found in cultivated country and wooded upland valleys. The young usually keep within a 50km radius of mum and dad so they can pop home at weekends for a good rabbit stew and a chin wag. There are about 50,000 pairs in Britain. The Latin name is 'buteo buteo' which means 'buzzard buzzard'. Science being highly original with its naming again.

Red Kite

The majestic Red Kite was almost driven to extinction by gamekeepers and farmers, but some hung on in Wales from where they have been re-introduced along with birds brought in from Europe. The law has changed, and it is now illegal to kill them. Since the re-introduction, they have been doing well. They are usually seen singly or in pairs.

The Red Kite is rusty red with dark streaks and a pale head. They have a noticeably forked tail, long narrow wings which are usually held flat (unlike a Buzzard's V-shape) and have pale patches at the end before the black wing tips. On their back, there is a faint diagonal pale stripe across the top of the inner wing. The forked tail, though, is the dead giveaway.

The Red Kite's call is more of a whistle compared to a Buzzard's mewing call. It can almost sound like a builder's wolf whistle, a "peeooo-weooo-weooo". The Buzzard, in contrast, calls a single "meeooo" which is repeated after a brief pause.

They hunt by circling high overhead until they spot something tasty to eat. Their eyesight, like all raptors, is phenomenally better than ours! They are top predators and have a varied diet, eating both live and dead prey. Their bill is not strong enough to penetrate tough skin, so they cannot take large prey. When hunting live prey, the Kites will dive feet first from the air, or drop from a post, to catch them. Their diet consists of small mammals (like rats, voles, and mice), medium sized birds (like crows and pigeons), earthworms, frogs, and lots of carrion (already dead animals like road-kill, dead sheep and game birds). Scavenging Red Kites were common in medieval London, even being referenced several times in Shakespeare's plays. For many years, gamekeepers and farmers, seeing Kites eating their animals, mistakenly assumed the Kites had attacked them which is why they killed the Kites.

Red Kite nesting starts in late March. They make a large nest of twigs in the fork of a tall tree within a wood or copse. The male brings the twigs while the female neatly arranges them. The female often decorates the nest with rags, plastic bags, and even underwear pinched from washing lines! Ladies are so much better at homemaking than men. A pair of Red Kites may reuse the same well decorated nest for several years. Both birds incubate the eggs, though the female does more than the male. The 1-3 eggs are laid at 3-day intervals and hatch after 31 days (a long time). The youngsters are fed by both parents and can only fly after 50-70 days. They continue to be fed for another 20 days. With child rearing taking such a long time, they can only raise one brood each year.

The 2,500 pairs of Red Kites in Britain are largely resident, though young birds will wander widely in spring to find their own patch. Their Latin name is 'milvus milvus' which means 'red kite red kite'. Not very original for something so magnificent.

Skylark

The Skylark has inspired so many poets and so many verses because the song is truly exceptional and because nobody but a dullard could miss it cascading down from the sky on a hot sunny day. The Skylark is the master of circular breath control, flying and singing for minutes at a time without a pause.

About the size of a Starling, the Skylark has a brown-streaked back, pale underparts, a streaked breast and a short crest that can be up or down - so don't rely on it to identify them. They have broad wings with a noticeable pale back edge, and white outer tail feathers. The wings can look almost triangular in flight. They blend in with the ground and can be very difficult to see until they suddenly fly off - from just a few feet away.

Non-stop singing while flying is what this bird is all about. It is to show how fit and healthy they are to the girls. They can sing for 10-15 minutes while rising vertically higher and higher in the sky until they become the merest dot. It is an unbroken, burbling doodle of notes with frequent quick repetitions and fast trills, laced with a bit of mimicry just to show off. They fall rapidly back to the ground once done. They love singing in the sun, even when it is windy, which is why we think of them as the sound of summer.

When not showing off, the Skylark spends most of the time walking about on the ground in wide open spaces, away from hedges and trees, so his adoring fans can easily find him to get an autograph. Out of the singing season, the Skylark's call is a "chirrup" and can easily be confused with that of a Sparrow, particularly as they all look brown at a distance. There may be more Skylarks around than you think.

Skylarks eat insects, seeds and some green leaves like nettles and docks (for vocal strength like Popeye’s spinach), by foraging on the ground.

They nest on the ground too, in small depressions lined with grass. The female Skylark sits on the 3-5 eggs, which hatch after 11 days. The young leave the nest 8 days later, learning to walk before they can sing and being schooled and fed by mum and dad. They finally fly at 15 days and depend on their parents for another week. With such a fast turn round of potential Pavarotti's, Skylarks can have up to 3 broods in a year.

In autumn, northern Skylarks come south and west to feed on arable fields and can form large flocks called an 'exultation' (which is a perfect way to describe them!) The Skylark is a common resident with about 1.5 million pairs and is one of the most widespread breeding birds in Britain. They can be found in all types of open areas including farmland, salt marshes, dunes, rough ground, and even urban spaces. They are only missing from the tops of high mountains as there is no one around there to hear them. There used to be even more Skylarks, but changes in farming practices have affected breeding success and halved the numbers in the last 20 years. In the distant past, they were trapped for food and their larks’ tongues were considered a delicacy (how horrid).

The Skylark's Latin name is 'alauda arvensis' where 'alauda' means lark and 'arvensis' means of the field. So, confusingly, a field lark. Science can be weird.