Goshawk trends are hard to judge: the birds are secretive and hard to survey, and many studies are small or limited in time and place. Breeding Bird Survey and Christmas Bird Count trends for goshawks are inconclusive because the species is seen so rarely on those surveys. Goshawk nesting pairs are spread thin: in the western United States there are about 3.6 to 10.7 nesting pairs per 100 square kilometers.

In the Targhee National Forest in Idaho, goshawk territory occupancy fell from 64% to 31% between 1990-1994 and 1998-2002. In the UK, goshawks were all but gone as a breeding bird by the end of the 19th century, and the breeding population has since come back. Some managers in New England suspect goshawk numbers may be rising as forests grow back, but they lack definitive data.

In a two-season Arizona study, 20 adult goshawks chose foraging sites by forest structure, with higher canopy closure and more large trees, rather than by how many prey were there. A goshawk's large body and wingspan limit its use of young, dense forests, where there is too little space in and below the canopy for flight and hunting.

Lighter wing loading in western goshawks than in eastern ones may be an adaptation for longer migratory movements. Scientists describe ten weakly different goshawk subspecies, and because much of the variation is gradual, whether the subspecies are valid is debated. Comparing goshawk home range sizes across studies may not be meaningful because the studies calculate them in different ways. In Wyoming, a nesting goshawk's home range runs from 570 to 5,300 hectares, depending on local habitat.

Words to know

• subspecies: regional type
• migratory: seasonal traveling
• inconclusive: not settled