Raptors of North America Natural history and conservation

Review by Choice Review

An update of the authors' earlier Birds of Prey (CH, Jun'92, 29-5700), this coffee-table book consists of 53 species accounts of all vultures, hawks, and owls occurring north of Mexico. Entries average two to three pages of text, accompanied by two to three pages of good to excellent photographs by the authors. The text, which covers behavior, life history, habitat use, and migration patterns, is written in a direct, almost conversational, highly readable style; literature citations are not included. The authors assembled the accounts largely from their considerable personal experience and fleshed them out only where necessary from their summary interpretation of the literature. Quite frequently they encourage readers to think more deeply by expressing their own opinions, views, or speculations on uncertain questions or issues. However, devoting a half page of the account of the short-tailed hawk to cautioning workers about interpreting alleged sightings of ivory-billed woodpeckers somehow seems out of place. Most accounts contain an assessment of the authors' views on major conservation issues facing each species. All in all, this attractive book, full of personal experiences, is highly suitable for laypersons and of limited value to serious researchers. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-/upper-level undergraduates and general readers. S. W. Harris emeritus, Humboldt State University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

---

Review by Booklist Review

Raptors--birds of prey--have always excited the imagination. The powerful eagles, meteoric falcons, and secretive owls have all fascinated humans for millennia. Ornithologists Snyder (authors of The California Condor, 2000) have produced a sumptuous examination of the 34 species of diurnal and 19 species of nocturnal raptors found in North America. Beginning with the vultures, and with the continent's largest raptor, the California condor, the Snyders write of the other diurnal birds of prey--the kites, harriers, accipiters, buteos, ospreys, eagles, falcons, and caracaras. The nocturnal owls then follow. Each species is shown with a range map of its distribution. Species accounts provide basic natural history information, written in a firsthand style that emphasizes the Snyders' research but that also refers to details gleaned from the scientific literature. This personal writing style not only makes for an easily digested reference work but also is very enjoyable as pleasure reading. Illustrated throughout with beautiful clear photographs taken by the Snyders, this is a highly recommended book for every library. --Nancy Bent Copyright 2006 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

---

Review by Library Journal Review

This rich, informative, and attractive book deals with diurnal raptors (i.e., hawks, vultures, condors, eagles, falcons, kites) and nocturnal ones (owls). The Snyders, whose Birds of Prey: Natural History and Conservation of North American Raptors (1991) covered only diurnal raptors, are accomplished naturalists celebrated for their more than 50 years of research on endangered species, parrots, and raptors. Most raptor books either concern identification or life history information. This book, illustrated with 300 of the pair's dramatic color photographs, refreshingly differs in being more anecdotal, drawing on the Snyders' vast experience. It offers a straight textual review of the lives, biology, and conservation issues of all 53 North American species. Photos show not only the adult birds, their nests, and the young but also the context and spectacular habitats these singular birds inhabit. There is also some information on their lives in Mexico and Central America. Always authoritative and interesting, this is much more than the coffee-table book it may seem at first glance. Vital and highly recommended for public and academic libraries with collections in natural history, conservation, and biology.-Henry T. Armistead, formerly with the Free Lib. of Philadelphia (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

---

Elf Owl Micrathene whitneyi   Elf Owls are most vocal on moonlit nights, especially when setting up territories. Their calls are quite different from the sounds of other owls and have sometimes been described as puppylike barks or elfin shrieks and laughter. Males give a multinote chatter song to advertise their presence at nest cavities. The quality of this song varies from soothing to manic--its intensity possibly keyed to the reactions of potential mates or competitors. Once pairs are formed, partners keep in contact with each other around nests with soft descending peew calls.             The birds also have an alarm call--a sharp yip given singly or in a series and often in response to disturbance. Sometimes they give yips to sounds such as a slamming screen door or a barking dog, or to the menacing silhouette of a larger owl. Both males and females give yips , and the owls are always alert to intruders in the early breeding season, responding no matter whether the intruder is another Elf Owl, a potential mammalian predator, or a human playing a tape or giving a whistled imitation of the owl. They react especially strongly to other owls in their territories, both with alarm calls and mobbing behavior.             For more than a decade Elf Owls have nested in our backyard in rural southeastern Arizona. In 2003 and 2004 they used a wooden nest box that we had mounted fifteen feet up on the limb of a sycamore and had fitted with a removable back. Once the chicks were large enough to no longer need brooding, we replaced the back with a glass plate during nighttime observation periods so that we could watch feedings inside the box from an outside blind erected atop scaffolding. The adults and youngsters exhibited no problems in accepting temporary insertion of the glass plate in the nest box, and it became possible to study directly how the parents distributed food among their nestlings and how the nestlings interacted with one another. With the success of these observations, we modified the nest box even further in 2005, fitting it with a tiny infrared spy cam and microphone and leaving the wooden back permanently in place. With this arrangement, we were able to watch an entire breeding cycle inside the box via a cable television hookup to our living room, tracking and recording activities day and night from a camera viewpoint inside the box that looked down at the nest bottom from above the box entrance. Excerpted from Raptors of North America: Natural History and Conservation by Noel Snyder, Helen Snyder All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

---