Raptors Portraits of birds of prey

This book certainly lives up to its title--it is filled with exceptionally good photographic portraits of various eagles, hawks, falcons, vultures, and owls. Scott is an animal photographer with several books to her credit. For this current project, she visited several facilities housing raptors, including rehabilitation centers. All the photographs within this work are of birds living in these facilities, and most were made against black backgrounds; consequently, there is nothing particularly natural about the portraits. Biological notes are featured on some of the plates, but beyond comments of general interest, little information is given to readers. Overall, this is a coffee-table book--and a nice one. Birders will enjoy turning the pages because of the high quality of the photography. However, most science libraries or other readers in academia will probably pass on this one because it will not be of much use in a research environment. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers only. --Paul K. Lago, University of Mississippi