Northern Goshawk (Accipiter striatus)

Image by Melani Marfield

(Note orange-red eyes)

Photo by istock / Henk Bogaard

A large, agile and powerful hunter, the Northern Goshawk is generally scarce and not often seen across lower Canada and northern U.S., while it lurks in deep, conifer-dominated forests and mountains.

It pursues prey as large as snowshoe, plus hares and grouse, plus poultry, other birds and small to medium mammals, even occasionally eating fish and some large insects. They sometimes carry mammalian prey to water and kill it by drowning.   Their hunting is mostly inside forests.

They sometimes winter irregularly south of their mapped range when southward irruptions occur in some years.

They are generally uncommon to rare, but are steadily increasing and stable in most areas, after hitting bottom in the 1970s.

This a large accipiter: 21-26" (53-66 cm) - WS 40-46" (102-117 cm), with conspicuous eyebrow flaring behind the eye, separating the adult's dark crown from the blue-gray back.

One of the 12 accipiters in its part of the world in Canada and the U.S.

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BarrytheBirder