Merlins lays 3 to 5 rust colored eggs. Their eggs are heavily spotted with brown. Being aggressive raptors, these falcons are quite adaptable in their nesting habits. They have been known to take over an abandoned nest, use a tree cavity like a Kestrel, and make a shallow scrape on the cliffs or in the dirt like a Peregrine Falcon. These falcons are typically found in the wooded edges of open country.
Merlins breed in boreal forests throughout Canada, Alaska, and the Western United States.
They have also been found along the Southern and Eastern coasts. These bird of prey winter in the South and Southwest. Primarily a hunter of songbirds, the Merlin is not a steep diver like the Peregrine, nor does it hold in a hover above its prey like the Kestrel, but instead it relies on surprise, a bit of mimicry, and speed. The Merlin approaches its prey by imitating the low and undulating flight of a woodpecker or pigeon. In this way the Merlin obtains birds, but it will also eat rodents and large insects.