In this meticulously illustrated guide, Lee and Birch synthesize decades of birding, their own identification articles, and specimen research to demystify a supremely puzzling group of smallish flycatchers mostly of the genera Empidonax and Contopus, known as “empids” and “pewees,” respectively. They describe their approach as holistic, and it is, de-emphasizing plumage and what might be called a “field mark approach” in favor of gestalt plus a generous helping of seasonal status and geographical distribution. Once thought to be reliably distinguishable only in the hand—plucked from nets, or, before that, shot out of trees—flycatchers lend themselves well to identification that is strongly comparative and multi-dimensional. This book thus serves as an alternative to regional field guides or, especially, websites, both of which attempt to summarize and reduce the collective knowledge of birders, rather than leveraging and amplifying it as these authors have done.