I used to think this was an OK field guide for those who preferred photos to drawings, but that simply isn't the case.

The photos are highly imperfect and incomplete. Immatures, and other alternate plumages, are rarely pictured. For the most part, you're stuck with average photos of adults in breeding plumage. Additionally, there is no attention drawn to field marks in the photos, instead one must look to very cursory descriptions in the texts, which are rarely longer than one sentence for each plumage.

I will say that some of the photos are really nice and the book might be the easiest field guide to navigate. ( )