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.