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GalleryNATUREBIRDSRAPTORS immature Merlin Falcon in our backyard

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This bird took me hours to source. I finally started focusing on the yellow cere (fleshy patch at the top of the beak), and the yellow around the eyes. I had bypassed the Merlin falcons several times until I saw an immature one that matched this guy far better than anything else. I don't know what he had taken down, but he wasn't too bothered by my taking pictures about 20 feet away. He did finally fly away with his meal but left me with some fascinating pictures. I had never seen anything like this so close before.

.. When I took this shot, it was amongst a lot of other far more graphic ones that I originally hesitated posting - but this one has now been viewed so many times that I decided to add one more. It's still not as detailed as as some of the other pictures, but it does show more than this one does. In order to keep those details down though, I did it in two different versions: in one, I made the background with its prey a little grainier than the Falcon, and; in the other I softened the prey and the background.