A Photographic Guide to North American Raptors

The book is well written, informative and has good photos for ID'ing the Birds.

I purchased this book specifically to improve my ability to identify different buteos and their various morphs. I live in South Texas that holds a good number of resident Harris hawks, Crested Caracaras, American Kestrils and a few others. During the migration and winter, the hawk/falcon population soars [pardon the pun], including the number of buteos. Well, despite their size and relatively sedentary natures I have problems identifying many of these hawks. Certainly a mature redtailed redtail hawk is easy to identify but I have seen very few of these classical morphs.I hoped this book would help me but I made something of a mistake purchasing a photographic guide. For reasons beyond me, photographs are less helpful to me than accurate drawings. This may be my specific problem but I suspect their are other bird aficionados who have the same problem.The photos in this book are excellent, showing the various species and their various morphs in different poses. The organization is good but, for whatever reason, it hasn't helped me much.At the same time I bought this book, I bought Pertersen's excellent 'Hawks of North America'. It contains both drawings and photographs. The organization is good and it is adding to my ability to identify these birds.Ron Braithwaite, author of novels--'Skull Rack' and 'Hummingbird God'--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico

Great book for being able to identify raptors because it has great color photos of raptors at their various developmental stages. I highly recommend this book for identifying raptors.

I have legit owned this for 18 years (wow, just now realized I bought this when it first was published) and this copy was for my brother in law, a fledging birder for the holidays. So glad it's still in print. If you don't have an amazing raptor guide, look no further.

Being a naturalist from the age of seven or so, I have long been a keen observer of birds with particular attention paid to the raptors and soaring birds. All the books I had previously owned or seen about raptors stop far short of giving the info necessary for identifying the hawks and eagles of various ages and genders, as many of them will resemble another breed at various levels of maturity and in different seasons. This book almost eliminates those problems, giving excellent photos and descriptions that enable positive identification provided the observer gets a good enough look at the bird. It also provides useable field id pointers that will eliminate many questions with only a "sketchy" look at a flying or sitting raptor.A good book that should sit on the front seat of any raptor friend's car; one that will be used time and again in the field.

Book was in better than good condition. Everything about the transaction was great.

This is an excellent field guide if you want to know what raptors you have in your area. Where I live in the beautiful Iron County of Utah we have a lot of different raptors - from the little American Kestrel hawk to the majestic Bald Eagle. They are difficult to identify some times and this guide really helps a lot. The photo quality is excellent, and I especially like that they tell you where and when each photo was taken. This book must have been a real work of love to complete due to it's all-inclusive nature. You will learn everything you can about identifying the different raptors in your area. The section on common mis-identifications is especially handy. Very good book.

This is simply the best field guide for North American diurnal raptors that I have seen. Unlike some other photgraphic guides, it provides several images of each species in poses that one is likely to see in the field: perched and soaring from above and the side (showing field marks of top of wing and tail). It shows several examples of different morphs and ages for most birds. This is critical in understanding the variability in markings within a species. In addition, it has a section on field identification problems, detailing differences between similar looking birds. To my knowledge, there is no substitute.However, the paperback version is somewhat cheaply produced. The publisher should improve the binding and the quality of paper for this book. Try not to get it wet.

Not really what I was expecting I must admit. I assumed there would be some general information on each species as well as identifying characteristics, but it completely lacks any basic info such as range, preferred habitat, migration patterns, nesting habits and prey of choice. I guess the book was compiled under the assumption that birdwatching enthusiasts already know most of the relevant info. Oh well, it is still well put together with beautiful photography.