This stunningly illustrated book from acclaimed birder and photographer Richard Crossley revolutionizes field guide design by providing the first real-life approach to identification. Whether you are a beginner, expert, or anywhere in between, "The Crossley ID Guide" will vastly improve your ability to identify birds. Unlike other guides, which provide isolated individual photographs or illustrations, this is the first book to feature large, lifelike scenes for each species. These scenes - 640 in all - are composed from more than 10,000 of the author's images showing birds in a wide range of views - near and far, from different angles, in various plumages and behaviors, including flight, and in the habitat in which they live. These beautiful compositions show how a bird's appearance changes with distance, and give equal emphasis to characteristics experts use to identify birds: size, structure and shape, behavior, probability, and color. This is the first book to convey all of these features visually - in a single image - and to reinforce them with accurate, concise text. Each scene provides a wealth of detailed visual information that invites and rewards careful study, but the most important identification features can be grasped instantly by anyone. By making identification easier, more accurate, and more fun than ever before, "The Crossley ID Guide" will completely redefine how its users look at birds. Essential for all birders, it also promises to make new birders of many people who have despaired of using traditional guides. The following are the features of this book: Revolutionary: This book changes field guide design to make you a better birder. A picture says a thousand words: This is the most comprehensive guide: 640 stunning scenes created from 10,000 of the author's photographs. Reality birding: Lifelike in-focus scenes show birds in their habitats, from near and far, and in all plumages and behaviors. Teaching and reference: This is the first book to accurately portray all the key identification characteristics: size, shape, behavior, probability, and color. Practice makes perfect: This is an interactive learning experience to sharpen and test field identification skills. Bird like the experts: This is the first book to simplify birding and help you understand how to bird like the best. There is an interactive website that includes expanded captions for the plates and species updates.