The northern goshawk lives in the forests of North America and Eurasia. It is a large hawk and the largest accipiter, a group of hawks with short, rounded wings and long tails. A goshawk is about 55 to 61 centimeters (22 to 24 inches) long, and in Alaska, a typical female is about 65 cm (25 inches) long and weighs about 1,020 grams (2¼ pounds). An average male there is about 50 cm long and weighs about 880 grams (2 pounds). Its wings stretch about 1 to 1.2 meters (3 to 4 feet) from tip to tip, and a female is a little bigger than a male.

When a goshawk is perched, its short wings do not reach the middle of its tail. Its long tail and short, broad wings suit it for flying through thick forest. The tail steers it among the trees while the short wings let it speed up quickly. The authors of the Birds of North America account call its speed of flight through forests astonishing, given its large size. It also has tremendously strong feet and legs.

A goshawk usually ambushes its prey, and if the prey runs, it quickly pursues. Prey is an animal that a hunter eats. A goshawk hunts from tree perches by scanning the lower parts of the forest, the ground and the lower canopy. An open understory, the open space under the trees, helps it spot prey, and it often goes head-first through brush and branches when it chases prey. One wildlife education page says it may chase prey for up to 30 minutes. Between chases it perches for a short time, watches for prey, then moves to a new perch, and it also hunts along the edges of forests and across open spots.

A goshawk builds a nest of sticks high in a tree. In late winter and spring, goshawks fly a sky-dance display high over the trees. A pair may keep several nests and use different ones in different years, and a goshawk lays about two to four eggs, and goshawk parents feed their young until the young are about 70 days old. Each pair of nesting goshawks needs roughly 6,000 acres of forest to feed and raise its young. During nesting, a goshawk's home range is about 570 to 3,500 hectares (1,400 to 8,600 acres).

Words to know

• accipiter: forest hawk
• canopy: treetop layer
• understory: space under trees
• ambushes: waits, then rushes