Customer Reviews

Hawks from Every Angle: How to Identify Raptors In Flight

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As the title indicates, this book focuses primarily on flight identification, and does a good job of showing and comparing raptors from multiple angles. So if you're looking to identify which hawk is perched in a tree in your yard, look elsewhere. But if you're interested in hawkwatching or honing your ability to identify distant raptors, this is a worthy pickup.

This book nicely fills a gap between the Wheeler Guides (which have very close detailed photogaphs) and Hawks in Flight (which has mostly illustrations focusing on shape). This book has photographs, but the emphasis is on shape and structure more than plumage. It's got some really helpful pages where they put similar birds together and the same size flying overhead, then all flying to the right, then all flying at you, then flying away so you can directly compare subtle differences. It's got some nice photoshopped stuff where they inserted another bird into a photo for comparison (e.g. a nice one of a Peregrine and a Gyr both flying together). There are also "pitfall" images where they show similar birds you could confuse given certain looks at them.

I haven't read all the text yet, but the stuff I've read seems spot-on. It's got some fun hawkwatch numbers, like record days and seasons and a map of hawkwatch sites. (Although some of the dots on the map seem to be off). Overall if you're interested in hawks enough to still be reading this review, you'll probably find this book to be cool.

One of the continent's most expert hawkwatchers, Jerry Liguori here presents a set of very helpful notes intended to make the identification of distant raptors easier. The many carefully chosen photographs show the birds at literally "every angle," showing the reader birds head-on, wing-on, and in retreat, just as they often appear to the observer. Many of the images are carefully manipulated to elide obvious differences of size and color, making it possible to concentrate on more subtle distinctions of shape and habit in otherwise similar species; one could watch hawks for decades without witnessing the extremely informative juxtapositions effected here by the printer, and hawkwatchers new and experienced will find much to profit by in the book's plates.
The text, while it contains many nuggets of little-known information, is another matter. It reads very much like hastily scribbled notes, and the often meandering stream of the author's consciousness would have benefited from a careful editor's guidance (and a proofreader would have been helpful, too). Most experienced birders will be able to strain through the information to find what is valuable to them, but neophytes are likely to find navigating these waters occasionally troublesome, a difficulty not much eased by the glossary, which, for example, uses the word "base" in at least four different senses.
All in all, though, this is a book highly recommended to the hawkwatcher with some experience--or the hawkwatcher with a patient mentor or friend to help understand it.

If you're looking for a book that covers all the raptors that regularly occur in North America, forget it. A more honest title would've been 'Raptors of Northeastern Hawkwatch Sites.' Even then, northeastern hawkwatchers won't find Harris' Hawk in the book. The raptors Liguori does cover are done well, by and large, and I was particularly impressed with the treatments of both Harlan's Hawk and the Northern Harrier. But if you live in the West, as I do, you'll find the book less useful than the title suggests. Get yourself a Clark and Wheeler--it'll serve you much better. I'm looking forward to that frabjous day when hawkwatchers will escape their eastern bias, and discover that we have hawks in the West too.

A super-useful reference guide that goes well with HAWKS IN FLIGHT -- and actually I would probably look at this one first. Photographs and text both contain a lot of helpful information to assist in raptor identification -- though the "pitfalls" shots make it clear that not every bird will be identifiable.

Mileage obviously varies, but as a Californian I don't feel shortchanged by this book and have used it particularly for Sharpie/Cooper's differentiation.

I'm a bird guy. I absolutely love birds, and the birds I love more than any others are hawks. When I die, I want to come back as a hawk.

The problem (if it is a problem) is that I'm no naturalist. I seem constitutionally incapable of identifying most birds. Get me past the typical visitors to my backyard feeders--the junkos, sparrows, wrens, cardinals, goldfinches, thrushes, humming birds, and occasional woodpecker--and I'm pretty lost.

But because I so love hawks, and because they've recently reappeared in great numbers in my neck of the woods (central PA), I thought I'd give Liguori's book a try.

I'm glad I did. The photographs are stunning--beautiful enough to please the eye, but at the same time crisp and detailed enough to serve as a guide for hawk-spotting. I found especially helpful Liguori's shots of hawks at different flight positions--soaring, gliding, stooping, hovering, and so on. Equally helpful are the charts he provides that compare body, wing and head shapes of different kinds of hawks, falcons, and eagles. Ditto on the migration charts.

There's only one thing Liguori's guidebook doesn't have that I wish it did: photographs of perched hawks. I see lots of hawks when I'm driving that are perched on tree branches and electric lines, and I still have difficulty identifying them: redtail? Swainson's? Cooper's? Hopefully, the next edition of Hawks from Every Angle will include the perch angle as well. (In all fairness to Liguori, however, his book is subtitled "How to Identify Raptors in Flight.")

It would also be convenient were the book a bit smaller in size. It's broadness makes it a little burdensome in the field. But it could well be that a smaller format would've meant less precise photographs. If that's the case, the tradeoff is a good one.

I though this was an excellent resource for identifying hawks in flight. The photos are very informative, and attractive as well. The guide is, in my opinion, very comprehensive and extremely well written.

The illustations make it much easier to identify hawks in the sky and on the ground. It will be a valuable companion on my bird walks in the Audubon and to ID the hawks soaring overhead and through the woods by my home.

Libbie

A very detailed book - lots of good info - this book has the important points about identifying these birds, in flight, and at a distance. It will still take a lot of work, and a good pair of binoculars, and a lot of practice (none of which I have yet done) to be able to identify a hawk. I'm not a 'birder', per se (at least I don't think I am), but I am interested in learning more about the birds that are around, at different times, where I live in West Michigan.

This is a great book for understanding all of the races of morphs of hawks that you can come into contact with in your daily hawking, or at any major hawk watch during the fall migrations. It illustrates angles in flight and offers numerous photographs to display different views, including what a Bald Eagle will look like HIGH in the sky on a cloudy day. No, this book is not to show you the beauty of these birds in flight, if you want there there is a wonderful book out there that is entitled Birds in Flight I believe, and cost under thirty dollars on Amazon.com. This book is to help people interested in producing county list, state list, or aide in Hawk Watches to understand what these birds look like from high in the sky in order to get the proper ID down. This is a great supplement to many other reference books including the Nat. Geo Bird of North America (Big heavy edition not field guide). Now for the biased?

Yes it's true that most hawk watches occur in the east and there will be an eastern biased for most hawk books like this geared toward helping hawk watchers. However, since this is expected I can't give it any marks off. However, there is an endemic biased that does not include "locals" which do not migrate such as the White-tailed Hawk (which I was truly interested in reading on all the variations in plumage). This made me give it one less star.

If you know what you're buying, and understanding this is a reference guide to aide in hawk ID in flight from a distance, and are not buying this for someone as a pretty "picture" book to look at and say "wow I wish I could take that shot" or "Man I want to see one of those one day!" Then you will truly appreciate this book, especially the section on all the Red-tailed Hawk morphs and races present.

Cheers

heard alot about this book and thought it was time to get it. From the first several looks at it, I am very impressed and feel I will learn quite a bit from the hard work that was done to produce it.