The Raptor Almanac: A Comprehensive Guide to Eagles, Hawks, Falcons, and Vultures

by Scott Weidensaul

02 The Raptor Almanac is a comprehensive reference to the 310 species of diurnal (day-flying) birds of prey worldwide, including hawks, eagles, falcons, and vultures. For the birder or naturalist who wants to go beyond the fundamentals, and especially for anyone fascinated by birds of prey, The Raptor Almanac gathers virtually every important fact about these birds in an accessible and entertaining manner. This inspiring, all-inclusive book covers raptor evolution, taxonomy, behavior, courtship and breeding, nesting, migration, human/bird interaction, environmental threats, and conservation efforts-from the well-known programs to reintroduce the California condor and peregrine falcon, to lesser-known efforts to preserve the snail kite and the ferruginous hawk. This full-color volume is an indispensable guide for all birdwatchers, raptor enthusiasts, and for anyone interested in the natural world.
The Raptor Almanac is a comprehensive reference to the 310 species of diurnal (day-flying) birds of prey worldwide, including hawks, eagles, falcons, and vultures. For the birder or naturalist who wants to go beyond the fundamentals, and especially for anyone fascinated by birds of prey, The Raptor Almanac gathers virtually every important fact about these birds in an accessible and entertaining manner. This inspiring, all-inclusive book covers raptor evolution, taxonomy, behavior, courtship and breeding, nesting, migration, human/bird interaction, environmental threats, and conservation efforts-from the well-known programs to reintroduce the California condor and peregrine falcon, to lesser-known efforts to preserve the snail kite and the ferruginous hawk. This full-color volume is an indispensable guide for all birdwatchers, raptor enthusiasts, and for anyone interested in the natural world.

Genres: Birds

382 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2000

About the author

Born in 1959, Scott Weidensaul (pronounced "Why-densaul") has lived almost all of his life among the long ridges and endless valleys of eastern Pennsylvania, in the heart of the central Appalachians, a landscape that has defined much of his work.

His writing career began in 1978 with a weekly natural history column in the local newspaper, the Pottsville Republican in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, where he grew up. The column soon led a fulltime reporting job, which he held until 1988, when he left to become a freelance writer specializing in nature and wildlife. (He continued to write about nature for newspapers, however, including long-running columns for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Harrisburg Patriot-News.)

Weidensaul has written more than two dozen books, including his widely acclaimed Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds (North Point 1999), which was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize.

Weidensaul's writing has appeared in dozens of publications, including Audubon (for which he is a contributing editor), Nature Conservancy and National Wildlife, among many others. He lectures widely on conservation and nature, and directs the ornithological programs for National Audubon's famed Hog Island Center on the coast of Maine.

In addition to writing about wildlife, Weidensaul is an active field researcher whose work focuses on bird migration. Besides banding hawks each fall (something he's done for nearly 25 years), he directs a major effort to study the movements of northern saw-whet owls, one of the smallest and least-understood raptors in North America. He is also part of a continental effort to understand the rapid evolution, by several species of western hummingbirds, of a new migratory route and wintering range in the East.

- excerpted from his website

Reviews

[Nancy Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this book is almost 20 years old, it still has a lot of great information. But I would like to see an updated version to include more recent research.

[Jaylia3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was looking for a book to tell me about the dozens and dozens of turkey vultures that swoop and soar through my neighborhood skies and roost all together in a congenial-seeming large group every night. This book is much more than that; it's an amazingly thorough and comprehensive account of all raptors, which the author writes is the blanket term for hawks, falcons, eagles, vultures and owls. Covering all raptors in subjects like evolution, behavior, social structure, migration, and conservation turned out to be more interesting to me than reading in detail about just one species. Included in this large book are the author's personal story of his interest in the birds, a scientific account of both old and new world raptors--complete with many interesting maps, simple charts, and helpful lists--a species identification guide with both photos and information, the history of the sport of falconry, a summary of how raptors have been used in human myths, and a guide for the best places to view large groups migrating hawks.

[Chris Leuchtenburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have loved several of Weidensaul's books, but not this one. It isn't a bad introduction to raptors, but the inclusion of many pictures and large tables leaves little room for text. So, most topics are covered in a cursory manner. Although most of the text focuses on North America many of the tables include Europe, and there are some references to raptors in other parts of the world. The broad geographic span further dilutes the information.