The Crossley ID Guide: Raptors

Simply put, this is a new, photographic fieldguide to the raptors of continental North America. But, it isn’t that simple! Author Richard Crossley has set himself a challenge: to produce a range of ID guides that are completely different to anything else currently on the market. His approach is to produce, for each species, a photo-montage of various ages, sexes, plumages and races against a natural landscape background which reflects the kind of habitat each species is likely to be found in. ‘Raptors’ is the second volume in this style available (last year saw the release of Crossley’s ID guide to birds of the eastern United States) and a third is due for publication later this year (birds of UK and Europe).

As this is a radical new approach to presenting fieldguides, it is fair to say that the books are a bit like Marmite – you will either love them or hate them! My first impression was not that favourable, I felt the plates were incredibly busy and some birds could get lost against the background. However, on spending time with the book, and using it, I am growing to like this approach more and more. The images of the birds have been very well-chosen and show what you really see in the field, rather than neat ‘maps’ of birds. Jizz is critically important to successful identification of raptors and the author has approached this with imagination and thoroughness; as well as the standard species plates, scattered liberally throughout the book are ‘test’ plates, composite images of multiple species (“dark raptors of the Southwest”, “perched accipiters”, “widespread eastern raptors”…) with separate legends at the back of the book, encouraging the reader to practise identifying the species. To add to the realism there are also similar montages of birds in certain challenging viewing conditions (“going away”, “into the sun”, “topsides”…). A final section contains the text entries, with each species receiving a distribution map, overview and flight-style section as well as the more expected subheadings, such as size and shape, plumages and moult descriptions.

This is a 286-page book, of which only 87 pages are species description plates (out of a total of 163 colour plates, the rest being ‘test’ photo-montages) and a further 112 pages are text. This does mean that in many cases this is unlikely to be feasible as a guide in the field but, as a reference, this book is simply superb, thought-provoking and innovative. It is still true that you will either love or hate this approach. I love it. I am also very keen to see how this approach works within the more familiar arena of British and European birds.            

Book reviewed by Su Gough