Of the three U.S. and Canadian forest hawks known as accipiters, this is by far the most impressive because of its size and aggressiveness. Like others of the genus it is morphologically adapted to maneuvering through forest landscapes and usually uses an ambush approach to capturing prey; although if prey tries to escape, it quickly pursues.

From Turkey to Japan, goshawks are favored over falcons for falconry, and a limited number of permits are issued in Oregon for taking goshawks for falconry purposes.

The Northern goshawk has short, broad, round-tipped wings and a long tail. It is approximately the size of the Common raven. Adult plumage color is generally silver-gray on the upperparts and barred pale grayish-white on the underparts. Immatures are generally brown with strong striping on the underparts. An eye-stripe, if present, helps identify a goshawk. When perched, the short wings of the goshawk do not reach the midpoint of the tail. Tails of both adults and immatures have dark bands.

It is an uncommon to fairly common permanent resident in suitable habitat between 1,900 - 6,100 foot elevation in forested portions of the Cascade, Blue, and Klamath mountains.

The Northern goshawk is an Oregon Conservation Strategy Species in the East Cascades and West Cascades ecoregions.

Hear the call of the Northern goshawk

Photo by Charlotte Ganskopp