camcar
01-24-2011, 06:01 PM
Greetings,
I did not know where I should post this, so it ended up here.
There is some (and when I say some, I mean very little) debate on subspecies of Merlin in the interior of Texas. At a local park in Lubbock, I recently viewed three different Merlin: a female (Prairie) Merlin, and two very dark males that my father and I assumed must be the (Taiga) subspecies. It was past sundown and the lighting was very poor, but these two birds were very noticeably dark.
It was than asserted by a local birder that the (Taiga) subspecies would not be found in Lubbock and would generally only be found along the coast. Looking through many of my books and various other literature, all I could find on the subspecies was that (Taiga) was widespread wintering on both coasts and (Prairie) was on the prairie.
I was wondering if anyone could shed any light on this situation or maybe share detailed range maps of the three NA subspecies.
Thanks for any help,
Cameron Carver
I did not know where I should post this, so it ended up here.
There is some (and when I say some, I mean very little) debate on subspecies of Merlin in the interior of Texas. At a local park in Lubbock, I recently viewed three different Merlin: a female (Prairie) Merlin, and two very dark males that my father and I assumed must be the (Taiga) subspecies. It was past sundown and the lighting was very poor, but these two birds were very noticeably dark.
It was than asserted by a local birder that the (Taiga) subspecies would not be found in Lubbock and would generally only be found along the coast. Looking through many of my books and various other literature, all I could find on the subspecies was that (Taiga) was widespread wintering on both coasts and (Prairie) was on the prairie.
I was wondering if anyone could shed any light on this situation or maybe share detailed range maps of the three NA subspecies.
Thanks for any help,
Cameron Carver