Goshawk

goshawk: see hawk.

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goshawk

Northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis).

(credit: Karl H. Maslowski)

Any of the more powerful accipiters (hawks in the genus Accipiter), primarily short-winged, forest-dwelling bird catchers. Best known is the northern goshawk, which reaches about 2 ft (60 cm) in length with a 4.3-ft (1.3-m) wingspread and has finely barred gray plumage. Long used for falconry, the goshawk takes game as large as foxes and grouse. In the wild it lives in temperate to northern forests throughout the Northern Hemisphere, though it has become rare in the British Isles and is declining in North America. Several other species are found in the Southern Hemisphere.

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goshawk

a large hawk, Accipiter gentilis, of Europe, Asia, and North America, having a bluish-grey back and wings and paler underparts: used in falconry

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Goshawk 

(Accipiter gentilis), a bird of prey of the family Accipitridae. The goshawk ranges from 52 to 70 cm in length and from 0.55 to 1.8 kg in weight. The females are larger than the males. The short broad wings and long tail enable the goshawk to dash with extreme agility through thick forests in pursuit of its prey. The back is blue-gray, and the underparts are barred; in young birds, the underparts are streaked.

The goshawk is distributed primarily in the forest zone of Europe, Asia, and North America and in the mountains of northwestern Africa. It is nonmigratory or weakly migratory. The preferred habitat is forests, where it nests in trees. A clutch contains three or four eggs, which for the most part are incubated by the female; the incubation period is about 35 days. The diet consists of birds and mammals to the size of a hare. On game farms, the goshawk can at times be destructive; in all areas, however, it is greatly reduced in numbers, so that the harm it causes is of small consequence. The goshawk is sometimes used in falconry.