Jacquie, you could very well be absolutely correct. I know I have 3 bird I.D. books for Fl. alone & I can look at all 3 & wonder what the heck is going on. The photo & descriptions almost sound/appear to be different birds. It can be very vexing. I have found though that one of my books seems to be more right 99% of the time & so have learned to rely more heavily on that one than the other 2. When I compare photos & descriptions in that 1 book to actually seeing the bird in the wild it comes out on top. And how do I know that? Because there are birds that nothing else looks like (such as Osprey) & that's how I learned to trust this particular book above the others.
It can be hard to be positive.