Peter,
I have the original 1995 version titled Raptor Identification. I
used it a lot in the late '90's when doing the BOP (birds of prey) survey,
kept it in the car, and used it to learn flight patterns and silhouettes,
and tail shapes and ratios.
It's strengths are its size (small, a true field guide), cost
(cheap, I think I paid $12 or $15 new), and it does what it says it
does--identifies raptors by flight pattern, silhouette, size, wing useage,
and underwing pattern (all drawings, no photos).There is little text, but
that's a good thing.
I've recently acquired Raptors of Southern Queensland by raptorphile Greg
Czechura and Greg Field, published by the Qld Museum in their Wild Guide
series.Haven't really tested it yet, but again its (very) small, uses
photos, with more text in the conventional general bird field guide mode.As
it covers all resident mainland Aussie raptors, I don't know why the
authors/publishers choose the southern Qld bit. I thought Queenslanders were
past that parochial thing, but maybe they were specifically aiming at the SQ
market. Anyway, at $10 it's not dear and would be most useful for a beginner
birder.
Russ Lamb, Maleny,SEQ
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