Flight Identification of Raptors of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East

It has been said many times before, albeit truthfully, that birds of prey can be some of the trickiest birds to correctly identify. There are many similar and confusion species, even in the UK & Ireland let alone the wider geographic area this book covers; think of Goshawk/Sparrowhawk and the Buzzards for instance.

Raptors are rarely brightly coloured and important differences between species can be hard to see. This difficulty is often compounded by the fact that the birds are often seen at great distance, where very few plumage characteristics are obvious at all.

No general field guide has the space to dedicate to covering the full range of ages, moults, plumages, sexes and races of the raptors and so, until 1999, we lacked easy to access, comprehensive ID information. Then Dick Forsman, an experienced and highly regarded Finnish specialist in bird identification, published a lifeline: a ground-breaking photographic field guide to the raptors of Europe.  Forty three species were covered in great detail and, critically, much was made of identifying and separating the various species by size, shape, structure and jizz.

Now we have Dick’s second contribution to raptor ID. This new book does not replace the first but, rather, is a welcome addition to it. As the title suggests this book deals solely with flying raptors – the way we usually encounter them – and has moved away from images of close perched birds. The geographic area is enlarged, now also covering North Africa, which means more species are included: over 60, with another handful of distinctive races and known hybrids. Several pages per species cover the various important features, such as distribution, behaviour, variation, plumages and confusion risks, but the greater part of the book is left over to the breath-taking photographs and their enlightening captions. Every bit of this book strikes you with the sheer amount of work and knowledge that has gone into it. I really can’t fault it.

The first book helped me increase my (limited!) knowledge of raptor ID and grow in confidence in identifying some species. This new book, highlighting the astonishing similarity between certain taxa, and the incredible variability among species has, if anything, made me less sure again! As Dick says in the introduction, even with this book, raptors will still be tough to identify and it is important to understand that no book can ever replace time spent in the field. This superb book has definitely persuaded me to get back out there, armed with its pages and brilliant images, and get practicing again!

Book reviewed by Su Gough