Written by one of the leading raptor experts, this superb in-hand guide was written to aid ringers (banders) to properly identify, age, and sex diurnal raptors that are captured for marking. Each species account begins with a short description of the species giving the type and several diagnostic characters. This is followed by a section of similar species, each with characteristics to separate it from the species of this account. Also included is the conservation status for each of the species, based on Tucker & Heath (1994) and del Hoyo et al. (1994).