Northern Goshawk
Fearless and determined hunters, goshawks have been known to pursue prey so doggedly that they will follow fleeing chickens into farmhouses. Goshawks have reportedly seized hens at the feet of a henkeeper and chased prey under a woman's skirt.

Depredations on barnyard fowl earned the Northern Goshawk a bounty in some areas in the early twentieth century. These bounties often resulted in the killing of additional hawk species, even those recognized as more beneficial to farmers. In 1929 in Pennsylvania, 76 goshawks were turned in for the $5 bounty, along with 129 Sharp-shinned and Cooper's hawks and 296 hawks of other species.

Goshawks usually hunt with short, silent flights from a perch. They kill their prey with knife-like thrusts of the talons. They also search for prey during fast sorties through forest edges and openings, surprising their victims and subduing them quickly. If a chase ensues, the goshawk will crash through heavy cover at full speed, eventually overtaking fleeing prey. The larger female takes larger prey on average than the male. Goshawk fare includes a long list of bird species including grouse, ducks, crows, kingfishers, doves, blackbirds, robins, sparrows, owls, and smaller hawks. Goshawks have been known to capture mammals as large as woodchucks and as small as shrews.

The goshawk's defense of the nest is equal to its determination and audacity in pursuit of prey. Humans approaching too close to a nest are met with loud screaming calls and swooping attacks. Interlopers have received bloody gashes from goshawk talons. Goshawks often nest in coniferous or mixed woods. They prefer north-facing slopes near a water source in large forested tracts with tall trees and small openings for hunting. Typically, they build their nest high in a tall deciduous tree on a horizontal branch close to the trunk.

The Northern Goshawk's summer range extends across Canada from Alaska to Labrador, south in the West to central California, Arizona and Mexico, across central Alberta, northern Minnesota, Michigan, New York and New England, and southward in the Appalachians to West Virginia. In Pennsylvania and many other states in the eastern and mid-western United States, the normally scarce goshawk is seen mostly in the winter, most notably in irruption years. Goshawks breeding in the boreal forests of the eastern part of their range depend primarily on four prey species: red squirrel, Spruce Grouse, Ruffed Grouse, and snowshoe hare. When the latter two species undergo periodic population crashes, the goshawk stages large southward migrations. Birds in the western part of the range have more reliable food sources that make up for cyclic declines in favored prey populations, including Willow Ptarmigan, Blue Grouse, and ground squirrels.
Northern Goshawk Range Map

Description: Like the smaller Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks (A. striatus and A. cooperii), Northern Goshawks have short, rounded wings and relatively long tails, adaptations for maneuvering through forested environments. Adult goshawks have blue-gray upperparts, wings, and tail. A white supercilium separates the black crown from a black eyestripe. The underparts are whitish with fine gray barring on the throat, chest, and belly. The undertail coverts are white. In flight, the tail and secondary feathers of the wing are lightly barred; the primary feathers are strongly barred. From above, the wing is two-toned, with the primaries and secondaries darker than the mantle, back, and tail. Sexes are similar but the female is larger and more coarsely barred below.

Juveniles are speckled brown above. They have buffy underparts with strong brown streaking. They show a white supercilium below a brown crown. The tail and wings are strongly barred.

Cooper's and Sharp-shinned hawk adults have rusty breasts, show strongly banded tails, and lack the goshawk's white supercilium. Juvenile accipiters are much harder to distinguish, differing from one another mainly in size.


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