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| Hawks from Every Angle: How to Identify Raptors In Flight | 
| Author: Jerry Liguori
Creator: David A. Sibley
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 1650523
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 7.7 x 0.7
ISBN: 0691118248
Dewey Decimal Number: 598.944
EAN: 9780691118246
ASIN: 0691118248
Publication Date: October 31, 2005
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Product Description
Identifying hawks in flight is a tricky business. Across North America, tens of thousands of people gather every spring and fall at more than one thousand known hawk migration sites--from New Jersey's Cape May to California's Golden Gate. Yet, as many discover, a standard field guide, with its emphasis on plumage, is often of little help in identifying those raptors soaring, gliding, or flapping far, far away. Hawks from Every Angle takes hawk identification to new heights. It offers a fresh approach that literally looks at the birds from every angle, compares and contrasts deceptively similar species, and provides the pictures (and words) needed for identification in the field. Jerry Liguori pinpoints innovative, field-tested identification traits for each species from the various angles that they are seen. Featuring 339 striking color photos on 68 color plates and 32 black & white photos, Hawks from Every Angle is unique in presenting a host of meticulously crafted pictures for each of the 19 species it covers in detail--the species most common to migration sites throughout the United States and Canada. All aspects of raptor identification are discussed, including plumage, shape, and flight style traits. For all birders who follow hawk migration and have found themselves wondering if the raptor in the sky matches the one in the guide, Hawks from Every Angle--distilling an expert's years of experience for the first time into a comprehensive array of truly useful photos and other pointers for each species--is quite simply a must. Key Features: - The essential new approach to identifying hawks in flight
- Innovative, accurate, and field-tested identification traits for each species
- 339 color photos on 68 color plates, 32 black & white photos
- Compares and contrasts species easily confused with one another, and provides the pictures (and words) needed for identification in the field
- Covers in detail 19 species common to migration sites throughout the North America
- Discusses light conditions, how molt can alter the shape of a bird, aberrant plumages, and migration seasons and sites
- User-friendly format
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Helpful even for a bird-challenged guy like me February 24, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
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.
Hawks March 14, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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
Extremely informative, with excellent photography October 2, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
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.
Hawks from Every Angle April 18, 2006
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
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.
 another mistitled hawk book January 13, 2006
51 out of 59 found this review helpful
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.
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