Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind Cannot bear very much reality

A TS Eliot Quotation

Goshawk Dove: Have you seen this bird?

Goshawk

The Goshawk, Accipiter gentilis, is a medium-large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. This family also includes other diurnal raptors, such as eagles, buzzards and harriers.

It is a widespread species that inhabits the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere. In North America, it is called the Northern Goshawk. It is mainly resident, but birds from colder regions of north Asia and Canada migrate south for the winter.

Identification Tips:
• Length: 19 inches Wingspan: 42 inches
• Sexes similar, but females much larger
• Medium-sized, broad-winged, long-tailed hawk
• Short, dark, hooked beak
• Rounded wings
• Long tail rounded at tip
• Flies with several flaps and short glide, also soars frequently
• Short, dark, hooked beak
• Long, very thick tarsi appear short at rest

Adult:
• Red eye
• Blackish head and face with bold white supercilium
• Gray back and upperwings
• Pale gray chin, throat, breast, underwing coverts and belly finely vermiculate
• White undertail coverts
• Tail dark blue-gray above and pale below, barred with dark bands
• Flight feathers dark blue-gray above and pale below, barred with black

Similar species:
Adults unmistakable when seen well; at a distance, Goshawks distinctively combine the large size of a buteo and the broad-winged, long-tailed shape and quick wingbeats of accipiters. Immature Northern Goshawks are similar in shape and patterning to immature Cooper’s, but are much larger, with proportionately shorter tails, bulkier bodies and thicker black streaking extending all the way to the undertail coverts.

The Goshawk is the largest member of the genus Accipiter. It is a raptor with short, broad wings and a long tail, both adaptations to maneuvering through trees in the forests it lives and nests in.

They are usually opportunistic predators, as are most birds of prey. The most important prey species are birds, especially the Ruffed Grouse in North America, pigeons and doves, and passerines (mostly starlings and crows).

This species hunts birds and mammals in woodland, relying on its speed of flight through the dense forest as it flies from a perch or hedge-hops to catch its prey unaware.