Northern goshawks live across the forests of North America and Eurasia, making them one of the most widespread birds of prey on the planet. They’re found from Alaska and northern Canada through the mountainous western United States and into Mexico, and across Europe and Asia in a broad band of forested habitat. Their range spans two biogeographic regions, the Nearctic and Palearctic, and they occupy elevations from near sea level to over 10,000 feet.
Global Range Across Two Continents
In North America, goshawks range from western central Alaska and the Yukon territories southward through the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Northwest, and into the mountains of northwestern and western Mexico. They’re largely absent from the southeastern United States, where the flat, warm landscape doesn’t match their preference for dense, mountainous forest. Only goshawks that breed in the far north and northwestern parts of North America migrate seasonally; most populations are year-round residents.
Across Eurasia, goshawks occupy a similarly vast range. They breed throughout Scandinavia, across Russia, and into northern and central Europe, extending east through Siberia to Japan. In southern Europe, populations are patchier and tied to mountain forests. This enormous east-west range means goshawks inhabit everything from boreal spruce forests to temperate hardwood stands, adapting to whatever mature forest is locally available.
The Forests They Prefer
Goshawks are forest raptors above all else. They generally prefer mature or old-growth forests for nesting, whether that’s conifer stands, mixed hardwood-conifer forest, birch groves, or aspen. Tall canopies are essential. These birds hunt by flying fast through dense woodland, using short bursts of speed and agility to catch prey among the trees, so they need forests with enough open space beneath the canopy to maneuver.
That said, goshawks are more flexible than their reputation suggests. They can use younger forests as long as some mature, tall-canopied trees are mixed in for nesting. Sites near forest openings or edges are also attractive, since these breaks in the canopy provide good foraging opportunities. The key requirement isn’t a specific tree species but structural complexity: tall trees for nesting, dense canopy for cover, and nearby clearings for hunting.
Elevation Range
Goshawks are comfortable across a wide range of elevations. In California, breeding pairs have been documented from about 1,000 feet all the way up to 10,800 feet. On the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, they nest as low as 2,500 feet where suitable mature pine forest exists. In winter, they descend further, showing up at lower elevations and even near the coast or desert valleys in southern California.
This pattern holds broadly across their range. In mountainous regions, goshawks breed at middle to high elevations where old-growth forest is most intact, then some individuals shift downslope or to more open country during the colder months when prey is harder to find at altitude.
How They Choose Nest Sites
Within their forest territories, goshawks are particular about where they place a nest. A study of nesting in south-central Wyoming found that they consistently chose the tallest trees available, ones with high canopies and clean trunks lacking lower branches. Nests were built roughly halfway up the tree, averaging about 12 meters (39 feet) off the ground, with a range of 5 to 16 meters. Ninety percent of nests were placed within one meter of the trunk, tucked close to the main stem rather than out on a branch.
This placement makes sense for a large raptor that needs a stable platform and easy flight access. The tall, branchless trunk below the nest gives the bird a clear approach, while the canopy overhead provides shelter from weather and concealment from above.
Territory Size
Breeding pairs defend large territories. Research in northwestern California measured goshawk home ranges at roughly 2,110 hectares, or about 8 square miles. Within that space, the birds use the landscape at three scales: a small nest area of about 21.5 hectares of dense forest immediately around the nest tree, a post-fledging area of around 170 hectares where young birds learn to fly and hunt, and the broader home range used for foraging throughout the season.
Home ranges tend to contain a higher proportion of late-mature conifer and Douglas fir forest than the surrounding landscape. Goshawks aren’t selecting random patches of woods. They’re settling where the oldest, tallest forest is concentrated.
Goshawks in European Cities
One of the more surprising chapters in goshawk ecology is their colonization of European cities. Starting in the 1980s, goshawks began breeding in urban areas in Germany. Populations expanded rapidly through the 1990s and have since leveled off in several major cities. Berlin, Cologne, and Hamburg, all cities with over one million residents, now support established breeding populations.
Urban goshawks nest in city parks, large gardens, and tree-lined avenues, taking advantage of abundant prey like pigeons and squirrels. This adaptation hasn’t been widely observed in North America, where goshawks remain firmly tied to remote and semi-remote forest. In Europe, reduced persecution and the availability of tall park trees appear to have opened the door for these typically secretive raptors to thrive surprisingly close to people.