Hunting behavior of the goshawk (1 Viewer)

[Belumat]

Only twice have I managed to observe a goshawk in the hunt: once against a group of feral pigeons and today while trying to catch a collared dove. Both times the attacks were made on birds moving in an open field, a behaviour similar to that of a falcon. In your experience is this common?

 

[Xenospiza]

Yes, where I live they tend to fly low over fields in search of pigeons and crows.
I never see them catch anything, I just hear the waves of panicking crows!

 

[Belumat]

What amazed me most yesterday was seeing him attack from a height of more than 100 metres very distant birds in flight. It was not close to the ground.

 

[Richard Prior]

Only twice have I managed to observe a goshawk in the hunt: once against a group of feral pigeons and today while trying to catch a collared dove. Both times the attacks were made on birds moving in an open field, a behaviour similar to that of a falcon. In your experience is this common?

They have different techniques, the two successful attacks I’ve witnessed have both been on Carrion Crows, the crows were flying at a decent height and the Goshawk on both occasions plunged down from much higher up. I’ve seen them trying to catch Alpine Chough above a nearby rock pinnacle that I can see from home, that’s at 2000m altitude!

 

[MJB]

Only twice have I managed to observe a goshawk in the hunt: once against a group of feral pigeons and today while trying to catch a collared dove. Both times the attacks were made on birds moving in an open field, a behaviour similar to that of a falcon. In your experience is this common?

I've seen Goshawk hunt rather like this in Bosnia-Herzegovina, along the ridge-line of small hills that flanked a broad valley. In southern Spain, I've seen them on extended glides above the treetops of continuous forest, but my arc of view was too small to determine if they were hunting or just in transit. In UK, they seem to prefer gliding along just above the edges of plantation forest, but weaving steadily to prevent them being seen continuously by prey on open ground. During that weave, when less likely to be seen, the bird more often than not adds a few wingbeats to ensure it employs gliding flight when most visible from the ground.
MJB

 

[Farnboro John]

In the New Forest they often wait on high up in the manner of a Peregrine and then employ a stoop onto pigeons on passage - feral, Stock Dove, Woodpigeon, doesn't matter - and the difference seems to be that they will cheerfully follow the desperate pigeon into the forest cover to hunt it down below the canopy.

Going downhill they gather speed like you wouldn't believe.

John

 

[Belumat]

Thank you for your answers. This is interesting because in the books I have consulted the data refers mainly to ambushes of stationary animals. Peregrine falcon type swoops should be easier to see than ambushes in the woods but I have not found this behaviour described. However, I too have seen goshawks in flight just above the treetops and also flying over alpine grassland.

 

[Joe H]

From my experience up in Alaska, I see Northern Goshawks a couple of times a year. Always in mixed forests (Spruce and Poplar) and always flying below treetop level. My observations are usually made when hiking, biking or skiing in the forests so I wouldn’t see if the hawks were hovering above the trees though. I once saw a Goshawk shortly after it grabbed a Black-capped Chickadee and was sitting on a branch eating it while its mate (I think) was swooping at it and trying to distract the hawk. That had to be the bravest little Chickadee I’ve ever seen.