This newest addition to Iowa's successful series of laminated guides is a welcome aid to identifying the many challenging raptors of the Great Plains, from northern Minnesota to northern Texas. Illustrator Dana Gardner has created fourteen panels showing twenty-six species perched and in flight with complete plumage variations---dark phases, light phases, and juvenile and adult male and female forms. The text also includes length and wingspan, common and scientific names, and status such as common resident or winter visitor.Raptors are notoriously hard to identify, and Gardner has worked hard to make this guide useful for beginning birders as well as those more experienced in the field. Keep Raptors in Your Pocket in your car or backpack---or pocket!---during spring and fall migration and summer nesting season for help in identifying such relatively common species as the light and dark forms of the red-tailed hawk, the male and female merlin and American kestrel, and the juvenile, intermediate, and adult forms of the Swainson's hawk as well as such uncommon visitors as white-tailed, swallow-tailed, and Mississippi kites.

Dana Gardner has illustrated more than twenty-six books, including Helpers at Birds' Nests (Iowa, 1999) and A Naturalist amid Tropical Splendor by Alexander Skutch (Iowa, 1987) and A Field Guide to the Birds of Belize. He grew up in Lanesboro, Minnesota, and now lives in Berkeley. With Nancy Overcott as author, he is the illustrator of Birds at Your Feeder: A Guide to Winter Birds of the Great Plains (Iowa, 2003) and Fifty Common Birds of the Upper Midwest (Iowa, 2006).