Immature Sharp Shinned or Cooper's would be my guess, but Merlin seems convinced it's a Merlin which would go on my life list.
Coastal New England.
Well, the bird feeder did work twice...
this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2026
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Oh no…
When the birds of prey come to play, the smart birds stay away.
What a handsome featherball.
The infamous cooper/sharp-shinned debacle. My bet is on sharpy because of the bug eyes and some preeeetty sharp-looking shins.
He’s got that aggressive eyebrow though, which as I understand it is a Cooper’s trait. Could be wrong though, like you said it’s a tough call!
Any possibility of Merlin (falco columbaris)? Merlin™ (universitas columbaris) seems to think so even though it's listed as rare.
She was really quite small.
If you don’t have it already, highly recommend the Merlin Bird ID app by Cornell Labs. That’s where I’m pulling pictures.
One reason a lot of people default to Coopers is because they’re pretty common in suburban areas. Not sure what kind of area you live in though. In looking at your pic vs the app’s pics of Merlins and Coopers, I’d say it’s close. The one thing that is making me question the Merlin designation is the eye color. All of the pics in the app of Merlins show a fully dark eye, and your pic suggests a yellow eye, though I grant that it’s grainy (not a criticism! Bird photography is very tough in the best of circumstances and I’m certainly no more skilled). Coopers do have yellow eyes, or at least some of them in the pics do; some are quite red, wow. Same with sharp shinned, and they are smaller. The other distinguishing factor I’ve read about between coopers and sharp shinned is the head shape; I believe it’s sharp shinned that have a very round head. So, all things considered, if she was smaller than a crow, I’d probably lean toward sharp shinned at this point.
Merlin the app is the only reason I even thought of Merlin the birds, this is the picture that brought doubt to my mind and I see some yellow too.
But now I think maybe it's too big for a Merlin (the bird). The picture was through a window and screen and was one of many
Thanks for the thorough response!