Northern Goshawk

Northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) | Piotr Krzeslak

The Northern Goshawk has long been regarded as one of the most powerful and elusive hawks of North America’s forests. With broad wings, a long tail, piercing eyes, and an extraordinary ability to pursue prey through dense woodland, this formidable raptor seems perfectly designed for life among the trees.

There is one important naming change birdwatchers should know. In 2023, the American Ornithological Society split the species traditionally called the Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) into two species. North American birds are now called the American Goshawk, while birds across Europe and much of Asia are called the Eurasian Goshawk. Another taxonomic revision in 2025 moved the American Goshawk into the genus Astur, making its current scientific name Astur atricapillus.

Many field guides, older books, websites, and birdwatchers still use the familiar name Northern Goshawk, however, so both names remain useful when learning about this remarkable forest predator.

🦅 Scientific Classification

Classification	Details
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Class	Aves
Order	Accipitriformes
Family	Accipitridae
Genus	Astur
Species	Astur atricapillus
Current Common Name	American Goshawk
Former North American Name	Northern Goshawk

The American Goshawk belongs to the Accipitridae family, which includes hawks, eagles, kites, and several other groups of diurnal birds of prey.

👀 How to Identify a Northern Goshawk

A goshawk combines the long tail of a woodland hawk with a surprisingly large, powerful body.

Adults are mostly slate gray above with finely barred pale gray underparts. Their most striking feature is often the bold white eyebrow, or supercilium, extending above the eye against a much darker head.

The eyes of an adult can range from orange to deep reddish-orange, giving the bird an intense expression.

Important adult identification features include:

Dark slate-gray upperparts
Pale gray underparts with fine horizontal barring
Broad white eyebrow
Orange to red eyes
Dark head and face
Long, rounded tail
Broad, rounded wings
Large white undertail coverts
Heavy chest and powerful legs

Juveniles look quite different. Young goshawks are primarily brown rather than gray, with pale underparts covered in dark vertical streaks. Their eyes are generally yellow, gradually changing toward the orange or red coloration associated with adults.

📏 How Big Is a Northern Goshawk?

The American Goshawk is the largest and most heavily built of North America’s woodland hawks traditionally grouped as accipiters.

Adults generally measure:

Measurement	Typical Range
Length	20.9–25.2 in (53–64 cm)
Wingspan	40.5–46.1 in (103–117 cm)
Weight	22.3–48.1 oz (631–1,364 g)

Females are considerably larger than males, a pattern known as reversed sexual size dimorphism that occurs in many birds of prey.

A large female goshawk can approach the size of a Red-tailed Hawk, while a male may be only somewhat larger than a female Cooper’s Hawk.

🌲 Northern Goshawk Habitat

Goshawks are strongly associated with forests.

Unlike Red-tailed Hawks, which are often seen sitting beside highways or soaring over open farmland, goshawks usually remain hidden within large wooded landscapes.

Breeding birds frequently choose mature or older forests with relatively closed canopies. Depending on the region, suitable habitat may include:

Boreal conifer forests
Mixed hardwood forests
Douglas-fir forests
Ponderosa pine forests
Aspen groves
Birch forests
Mountain forests
Riparian woodland

In northeastern North America, goshawks may nest among beech, maple, birch, and hemlock. Farther west, they occur in forests dominated by species such as Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine, fir, larch, aspen, and western hemlock.

Although they are woodland birds, goshawks often hunt along openings, forest edges, trails, streams, and other breaks in the canopy.

This combination of dense cover and nearby openings can provide both concealment and room for sudden high-speed attacks.

🌎 Where Do Northern Goshawks Live?

The American Goshawk occurs across large portions of Alaska, Canada, and the northern and western United States.

Its distribution extends south through mountain ranges where suitable forest habitat persists.

Important areas include portions of:

Alaska
Canada
New England
The Great Lakes region
The Rocky Mountains
The Pacific Northwest
The Sierra Nevada
The mountains of the Southwest

Goshawks are generally uncommon even where they occur. Their preference for extensive forest and their secretive behavior can make them surprisingly difficult to locate.

🎯 Extraordinary Forest Hunters

A male Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) landing on the stump in forest during sunset. Wildlife photo | Vladimir Hodac

Watching a goshawk hunt helps explain its unusual body shape.

Broad, relatively short wings generate rapid acceleration, while the long tail functions like a rudder during sudden turns. Together, these features allow a goshawk to maneuver through a forest at speeds that seem almost reckless.

A hunting bird may sit quietly on an elevated perch watching for movement before suddenly launching toward its target.

At other times, it moves through the forest in a series of short flights, stopping at different perches while searching for prey.

Once the chase begins, the goshawk may pursue its quarry:

Between closely spaced trees
Through shrubs and tangled branches
Along forest edges
Across openings
Near the ground
Occasionally even into water

Rather than relying primarily on long-distance soaring, the goshawk specializes in explosive acceleration and maneuverability.

🐿️ What Do Northern Goshawks Eat?

American Goshawks have a remarkably varied diet that includes both birds and mammals.

Common prey may include:

Squirrels
Snowshoe hares
Cottontail rabbits
Jackrabbits
Grouse
Woodpeckers
Jays
Crows
Smaller birds
Rodents

They may also occasionally take reptiles, insects, carrion, and other available food.

Grouse can be particularly important prey in some northern forests, while squirrels and rabbits provide substantial meals in many regions.

Their ability to capture relatively large prey is one reason goshawks were historically prized in falconry.

🪶 Northern Goshawk vs. Cooper’s Hawk

The species most likely to cause confusion is the Cooper’s Hawk.

Both have:

Long tails
Relatively short, rounded wings
Forest-hunting behavior
Gray adult plumage
Reddish eyes in adults

However, a goshawk is substantially heavier and more powerful.

Adult Northern Goshawk

Look for:

Much heavier body
Broad chest
Prominent white eyebrow
Darker cap and face
Pale gray barred underparts
Fluffy white undertail coverts
Powerful wingbeats

Adult Cooper’s Hawk

A Cooper’s Hawk is generally slimmer, smaller, and less dramatically marked around the eye.

Location is another useful clue.

Cooper’s Hawks have adapted remarkably well to suburbs, parks, neighborhoods, and backyard bird feeders. Goshawks remain far more strongly associated with extensive forests.

A large woodland hawk attacking birds around a suburban feeder is therefore much more likely to be a Cooper’s Hawk.

🪽 What Does a Goshawk Look Like in Flight?

A goshawk in flight has broad wings combined with a conspicuously long tail.

Its flight often consists of several strong wingbeats followed by a short glide.

When soaring, its proportions can briefly resemble those of a buteo such as a Red-tailed Hawk. The long tail provides an important clue that the bird is something different.

From below, an adult may appear surprisingly pale, especially when the light catches its finely barred underparts and white undertail coverts.

🔊 What Does a Northern Goshawk Sound Like?

Goshawks are usually quiet away from their breeding territories, which contributes to their reputation as secretive forest birds.

Around the nest, however, they can become extremely vocal.

One of their best-known calls is a rapid series of sharp notes often written as:

kak-kak-kak-kak-kak

The call may be repeated insistently when the bird is alarmed or defending its territory.

Hearing this call in a mature forest during breeding season can indicate that a nest is nearby—and that is a good reason to keep your distance.

🪺 Northern Goshawk Nests

Goshawks build large stick nests in mature trees.

They frequently select one of the largest trees within a forest stand and place the nest close to the trunk on a substantial branch or in a large crotch.

The female performs much of the nest construction, although the male may assist.

A completed nest can become an impressive structure several feet across. Established pairs may maintain multiple alternative nests within the same territory and switch between them in different years.

Old nests may also be reused and enlarged.

Fresh bark, leaves, or green conifer branches are sometimes added to the nest during the breeding season.

🥚 Eggs and Young

Small goshawk hawk chicks in their nest. | Jonas Sjoblom

A typical American Goshawk clutch contains two to four eggs.

The eggs are usually bluish white and may contain subtle blotching.

Typical nesting information includes:

Nesting Fact	Details
Clutch Size	2–4 eggs
Incubation	About 28–32 days
Nestling Period	About 34–35 days
Egg Color	Bluish white, sometimes lightly blotched

During much of the nesting period, the male provides most of the food while the female remains near the nest and cares for the young.

Eventually both parents participate in feeding and protecting the growing chicks.

⚠️ Fierce Nest Defense

Few North American birds have a stronger reputation for defending their nests.

A normally secretive goshawk can become extremely aggressive when people or animals approach its young.

Adults may:

Call loudly
Circle an intruder
Dive toward people
Strike with their feet
Defend the area repeatedly

For birdwatchers, hearing a loudly calling goshawk during nesting season should be treated as a warning rather than an invitation to approach.

Backing away protects both the birds and the observer.

It also reduces the risk of disturbing nesting adults or young birds.

🧭 Do Northern Goshawks Migrate?

Goshawks are not all long-distance migrants.

Many adults remain near their breeding territories throughout the year, particularly where food remains available.

Others move south or into lower elevations during winter.

Juvenile goshawks tend to wander more extensively than established adults.

Some winters also produce larger movements beyond the species’ normal range. These irregular southward movements are sometimes associated with changes in prey abundance farther north.

For birdwatchers living south of the normal breeding range, such movements can provide rare opportunities to see a goshawk during autumn or winter.

🔭 How to Find a Northern Goshawk

Finding a goshawk takes patience.

The best habitat to search is generally extensive mature forest, particularly in regions where the species is known to breed.

Look for:

Large forest tracts
Mature conifer or mixed woodland
Mountain forests
Forest roads and trails
Clearings surrounded by mature trees
Hawk migration sites during fall

Listen carefully as well as watching the canopy.

During breeding season, calls may reveal a bird that would otherwise remain invisible.

Outside nesting season, scanning woodland edges and watching for a large, long-tailed hawk crossing an opening may be more productive.

Never deliberately approach an active goshawk nest simply to obtain a closer view or photograph.

🌿 Conservation

American Goshawks remain widespread but relatively uncommon.

Their secretive habits and low population densities make long-term population monitoring difficult. Available North American Breeding Bird Survey data cited by Cornell indicate that continental populations were broadly stable between 1966 and 2021.

Habitat remains one of the most important conservation considerations.

Goshawks depend heavily on mature forests for nesting, and large-scale timber harvest or fragmentation can alter nesting and hunting habitat. Disturbance from roads, forestry operations, recreation, and development may also affect breeding birds when activities occur close to active nests.

Protecting goshawks therefore often involves protecting not simply an individual nest tree but enough surrounding forest to support hunting, nesting, and successful reproduction.

🦅 Why the Name Changed from Northern Goshawk

For generations, ornithologists classified goshawks throughout North America, Europe, and northern Asia as a single widespread species: the Northern Goshawk, Accipiter gentilis.

Research increasingly showed meaningful genetic and other differences between the North American and Eurasian populations.

In 2023, the American Ornithological Society formally recognized them as separate species:

American Goshawk — Astur atricapillus in North America
Eurasian Goshawk — Astur gentilis in Europe and Asia

At first, the American species was called Accipiter atricapillus.

Another major hawk classification revision adopted by the AOS in 2025 reorganized several former members of Accipiter. The American Goshawk and Cooper’s Hawk were among the species moved into the genus Astur.

The familiar phrase “Northern Goshawk” has not vanished, however. It remains common in older references and is still widely used informally, particularly when discussing the bird historically.

💡 Fascinating Goshawk Facts

The American Goshawk is the largest of North America’s traditionally recognized accipiter-type hawks.
Females can be roughly a quarter heavier than males.
Their long tails help them make rapid directional changes while pursuing prey through trees.
Goshawks can attack animals considerably heavier than many people would expect from a forest hawk.
Pairs may maintain several different nests within a single territory.
Adults are normally secretive but become exceptionally aggressive near active nests.
Goshawks have been used in falconry for more than 2,000 years.
The name goshawk comes from an old term meaning essentially “goose hawk.”
The oldest known banded American Goshawk recorded by Cornell was at least 17 years and 7 months old.
The North American and Eurasian goshawks were officially recognized as separate species in 2023.
The American Goshawk’s scientific name changed again in 2025 when it became Astur atricapillus.

❓ Northern Goshawk FAQ

Is the Northern Goshawk now called the American Goshawk?

Yes. In North America, the bird traditionally called the Northern Goshawk is now officially known as the American Goshawk (Astur atricapillus).

The Eurasian population is recognized separately as the Eurasian Goshawk (Astur gentilis).

Are goshawks rare?

They are widespread but generally uncommon. Even in good habitat, breeding pairs may occupy large territories, and the birds spend much of their time concealed within forests.

Are goshawks dangerous to people?

Goshawks do not normally hunt or attack humans. However, adults can aggressively defend an active nest and may dive at people who approach too closely.

Do goshawks visit bird feeders?

Very rarely. A large woodland hawk hunting birds around a suburban feeder is much more likely to be a Cooper’s Hawk.

What is the difference between a goshawk and a Cooper’s Hawk?

Goshawks are generally larger, heavier, and more powerful. Adults also have a striking white eyebrow, pale gray barring underneath, and prominent white undertail coverts.

What do goshawks eat?

Their diet includes birds and mammals such as grouse, woodpeckers, jays, crows, squirrels, rabbits, and snowshoe hares.

Do goshawks migrate?

Some do, particularly young birds and individuals from northern regions. Other adults remain near their breeding territories year-round.

Where is the best place to see a goshawk?

Large tracts of mature forest in Canada, Alaska, the northern United States, and western mountain ranges offer some of the best opportunities. Hawk migration sites can also produce sightings during fall.

❤️ A Master of the Forest

The Northern Goshawk—or American Goshawk, as it is now officially known in North America—is one of the continent’s most impressive woodland predators.

It does not spend its days conspicuously circling over highways or sitting on telephone poles. Instead, it occupies a quieter world of towering trees, shaded forest floors, hidden nests, and sudden explosions of speed.

A brief glimpse can be unforgettable: a large gray hawk flashes between the trunks, its long tail twisting as it changes direction, and then it disappears almost as quickly as it arrived.

That combination of power, secrecy, and extraordinary agility has made the goshawk one of North America’s most fascinating birds of prey.