Goshawk (Northern Goshawk)
Accipiter gentilis
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Distribution Britain 236 (574%) Ireland 1
Numbers breeding: Britain 347 RBBP Ireland 0 European status: 75,000 (0% in Britain and Ireland) British population trend: further increase How likely are you to record it? 20 squares (0.4%) Ranked 136= |
The Goshawk's history is blanketed by a fog of dis-information. It supposedly became extinct 100 years ago and sporadic breeding started about 70 years ago — fuelled by deliberate releases and escaped falconer's birds. Certainly by 25 years ago the real population was probably quite a bit bigger than the official 'the total certainly exceeds ten pairs'. Now it is breeding very widely through Wales, possibly 150 or more pairs by now, and the situation in Scotland is not much different. In England the distribution is more patchy as the extensive woodland they need is a rarer resource. Maturing conifer forests will inevitably be colonised. They were lost from Ireland with the clearance of the forest 200 years ago but a pair nested recently in the North. Illegal persecution is the main problem. Further expansion expected to go ahead.
From
The
State of the Nations Birds
Copyright © 2000 by Chris Mead