Merlin, Falco columbarius
The common Merlin in the SF Bay Area is the "Taiga" or columbarius subspecies. The bird shown above is a male "Prairie" or richardsonii, as shown by the lighter blue-gray of its upperparts, and the broad light bands on the tail. The rest, below, are "Taiga" (columbarius) birds, and females or immatures.
			The pictures left and above show the same bird, identifiable as female by the brown upperparts, and columbarius by the narrow light bands on the tail.
						The picture on the left was probably the best one I ever got using the digiscoping method; this Merlin let me get quite close and posed for me in early morning light, and somehow the picture came out sharp despite the fact that I was hand-holding a point-and-shoot camera to a telescope eyepiece.