We (the authors, TE and CH) started banding raptors in the mid-2000s and mid-1980s, respectively, by working with experienced banders at raptor migration sites in the western United States. During this time, and up until recently, printed resources available in the blind typically consisted of the raptor age-sex keys from the United States Bird Banding Laboratory (US Department of the Interior and Canada Department of the Environment 1972), a slimmed-down version of expected measurements for each raptor species and sex, and the Peterson Field Guide to Hawks (Clark and Wheeler 1987). The Pyle Guide Part II (Pyle 2008) was introduced in the mid-2000s, but to us, this system of aging and sexing raptors seemed slow to gain momentum within the raptor banding community. Back then TE remembers raptor researchers suggesting that Pyle (2008) was more complicated than it needed to be and that there...

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