Raptors of Western North America--together with its companion volume, Raptors of Eastern North America--are the best and most thorough guides to North American hawks, eagles, and other raptors ever published. Abundantly illustrated with hundreds of full-color high-quality photographs, they are essential books for anyone seeking to identify these notoriously tricky-to-identify birds.
The Wheeler Guides will help birders and biologists navigate the pitfalls of raptor identification, including raptors' often extreme variation by age and sex as well as the existence of numerous "confusion" species. The plumage section discusses more plumage variations--and in greater consistency, depth, and clarity--than any previously published guide. The text--informed by years of study and consultation with local, state, provincial, and regional experts--covers all aspects of raptor biology in an easy-to-read and consistent format. It provides the most up-to-date information available on status and distribution, taking into account the recent alteration of some species' ranges due to pesticide bans and introduction programs. The range maps--which include "city" plotting--are the most accurate and largest ever produced for North American raptors.
Review:
... This astoundingly detailed guide makes it possible to recognize age classes, molting patterns, subspecies and sexes of most birds of prey. Visual aids make these soaring creatures identifiable even to the birder-challenged. The guide would be considered a bit excessive except that the hundreds of stunningly crisp photos document these species like no other guide (there are 82 photos solely of red-tailed hawks!). David Lukas(Los Angeles Times)
... The new Wheeler guides are, by far, the best guides for field identification and general reference for North American raptors that I have seen. The photos are both plentiful and stunning. . . . The new Wheeler guides, like the birds they elucidate and display, are gems for us all. They are well worth having. Donald Sweig(Audubon Naturalist News)
... This book is both a tour de force and a labor of love, and the immediate new standard for diurnal raptors in western North America. C. Stuart Houston(The Canadian Field Naturalist)
Table of contents:
Forward by (i>Clayton M. White ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Abbreviations xv
Chapter I Introduction 1
Key to Maps 9
Chapter II Genral Glossary 10
Chapter III Anatomy and Feather Glossary 15
Chapter IV Plumage, Molt, and Age Glossary 20
Chapter V Flying and Perching Displays Glossary 24
Chapter VI Perching and Flying Attitudes 28
Chapter VII Photography 33
"Raptor Music" a poem by Steve Millard 35
SPECIES ACCOUNTS
Black Vulture 39
Turkey Vulture 46
California Condor 57
Osprey 68
Hook-billed Kite 77
Swallow-tailed Kite 86
White-tailed Kite 93
Mississippi Kite 102
Bald Eagle 120
Northern Harrier 147
Sharp-shinned Hawk 160
Cooper's Hawk 179
Northern Goshawk 191
Common Black-Hawk 210
Harris's Hawk 217
Gray Hawk 224
Red-shouldered Hawk 231
Broad-winged Hawk 245
Short-tailed Hawk 259
Swainson's Hawk 268
White-tailed Hawk 295
Zone-tailed Hawk 308 Red-tailed Hawk 318
Ferruginous Hawk 367
Rough-legged Hawk 367
Golden Eagle 408
Crested Eagle 422
American Kestrel 428
Merlin 437
Aplomado Falcon 456
Peregrine Falcon 465
Gyrfalcon 501
Prairie Falcon 516
Bibliography 527
Index 543
The Wheeler Guides will help birders and biologists navigate the pitfalls of raptor identification, including raptors' often extreme variation by age and sex as well as the existence of numerous "confusion" species. The plumage section discusses more plumage variations--and in greater consistency, depth, and clarity--than any previously published guide. The text--informed by years of study and consultation with local, state, provincial, and regional experts--covers all aspects of raptor biology in an easy-to-read and consistent format. It provides the most up-to-date information available on status and distribution, taking into account the recent alteration of some species' ranges due to pesticide bans and introduction programs. The range maps--which include "city" plotting--are the most accurate and largest ever produced for North American raptors.
Review:
... This astoundingly detailed guide makes it possible to recognize age classes, molting patterns, subspecies and sexes of most birds of prey. Visual aids make these soaring creatures identifiable even to the birder-challenged. The guide would be considered a bit excessive except that the hundreds of stunningly crisp photos document these species like no other guide (there are 82 photos solely of red-tailed hawks!). David Lukas(Los Angeles Times)
... The new Wheeler guides are, by far, the best guides for field identification and general reference for North American raptors that I have seen. The photos are both plentiful and stunning. . . . The new Wheeler guides, like the birds they elucidate and display, are gems for us all. They are well worth having. Donald Sweig(Audubon Naturalist News)
... This book is both a tour de force and a labor of love, and the immediate new standard for diurnal raptors in western North America. C. Stuart Houston(The Canadian Field Naturalist)
Table of contents:
Forward by (i>Clayton M. White ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Abbreviations xv
Chapter I Introduction 1
Key to Maps 9
Chapter II Genral Glossary 10
Chapter III Anatomy and Feather Glossary 15
Chapter IV Plumage, Molt, and Age Glossary 20
Chapter V Flying and Perching Displays Glossary 24
Chapter VI Perching and Flying Attitudes 28
Chapter VII Photography 33
"Raptor Music" a poem by Steve Millard 35
SPECIES ACCOUNTS
Black Vulture 39
Turkey Vulture 46
California Condor 57
Osprey 68
Hook-billed Kite 77
Swallow-tailed Kite 86
White-tailed Kite 93
Mississippi Kite 102
Bald Eagle 120
Northern Harrier 147
Sharp-shinned Hawk 160
Cooper's Hawk 179
Northern Goshawk 191
Common Black-Hawk 210
Harris's Hawk 217
Gray Hawk 224
Red-shouldered Hawk 231
Broad-winged Hawk 245
Short-tailed Hawk 259
Swainson's Hawk 268
White-tailed Hawk 295
Zone-tailed Hawk 308 Red-tailed Hawk 318
Ferruginous Hawk 367
Rough-legged Hawk 367
Golden Eagle 408
Crested Eagle 422
American Kestrel 428
Merlin 437
Aplomado Falcon 456
Peregrine Falcon 465
Gyrfalcon 501
Prairie Falcon 516
Bibliography 527
Index 543