In this comprehensive new identification guide, Bill Clark presents the latest information on tried and tested field marks for identifying the diurnal raptors of the Western Palearctic region. Forty-eight stunning colour plates, especially painted for this volume by artist N.John Schmitt, depict all the plumages for every raptor, both regularly occurring and vagrant. The plates are augmented by a forty-page colour photograph section. The accompanying text provides the reader with essential clues to identification: detailed plumage descriptions for each age, sex, and colour morph; sections describing flight, moult, behaviour, and distribution for every species; sections on similar species - notoriously difficult to identify - and how to distinguish them. Each account concludes with the range of measurements for length, wing span, and weight. Those birders who prefer illustrations to photographs will probably find this guide more to their liking than Forsman's new Raptors of Europe and the Middle East.