Eurasian goshawk
Accipiter gentilis
A large woodland hawk with short broad wings, a rounded tail and a white eyebrow. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident, a passage migrant and a winter visitor on the 2024 national bird checklist.
At a glance
Key facts in one look
Diet
Birds and mammals
Status in Georgia
Resident, migrant, winter visitor
Size
49–64 cm
Habitat
Dense forest
Family
Accipitridae
Conservation
LC
Human interaction: It is not a threat to people and is not venomous. The talons are strong; do not handle it and do not approach nests. A bulky hawk appearing suddenly in deep woodland in Georgia is more likely this species than a sparrowhawk. It is not food.
Overview
What is Eurasian goshawk
The Eurasian goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) is a large woodland raptor of the family Accipitridae. The usual Georgian name is ქორი; დიდი ქორი is sometimes used to separate it from the sparrowhawk. The 2024 annotated checklist of the birds of Georgia codes it YR-R; M; WV: a breeder present throughout the year, and also a bird of passage and a winter visitor. The English checklist name is Eurasian Northern Goshawk. Seasonality is classed as high-quality (code A). Occurrence quality is high (H), with photographic evidence. Adults are about 49–64 cm long at species level; females are clearly larger than males. It is not a threat to people. IUCN lists the species as Least Concern. The 2024 checklist assigns the same category nationally.
Last updated
Gallery
Eurasian goshawk in photos
Photo: Jevgenijs Slihto
Kronvalda Park, Riga ·
Photo: Holger.Ellgaard
Marieberg, Stockholm ·
Photo: Norbert Kenntner
Schöneberg, Berlin ·
Photo: Thermos
Vanhankaupunginlahti, Helsinki ·
Photo: Afr.1994
Melaten Cemetery, Cologne ·
Identification
How to identify Eurasian goshawk
A large woodland hawk with short broad wings, a rounded tail, a dark cap and a white eyebrow. Adults are slate-grey above with fine barring below; juveniles are brown with lengthwise spots. In Georgia the usual confusion is with Eurasian sparrowhawk.
- 01
The silhouette is bulkier than a sparrowhawk: deep chest, broad wing bases, a comparatively short tail with a rounded tip. Flight is flap-flap-glide, not the pointed wings of a falcon. Adults have an orange to reddish eye and yellow legs. At species level length is about 49–64 cm and wingspan often about 90–125 cm. Females are clearly larger than males. A separate measured series from Georgia is not given on this page.
- 02
Adults have a dark cap and ear-coverts with a bold white supercilium. The back is slate-grey; the breast and belly are pale with fine dark cross-barring. Juveniles are brown above and cream below with lengthwise teardrop spots — not the adult’s fine bars. The eye is yellower in juveniles.
- 03
Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) is much smaller, with thinner legs, a longer almost square-tipped tail and a weak eyebrow; this atlas has a separate page for it. Levant sparrowhawk (Accipiter brevipes; IOC Tachyspiza brevipes) is smaller still, with more pointed wings and a dark eye; on the 2024 checklist BB; M and VU on the national Red List. Common buzzard (Buteo buteo) is a broad-winged soaring raptor, not a woodland hawk. Peregrine is a pointed-winged falcon. Shikra (Accipiter badius) is casual (Cas) on the checklist. This atlas does not yet have a separate page for Levant sparrowhawk.
- 04
It is not a threat to people. Leave it alone. A small hawk in a Georgian garden is more likely a sparrowhawk; a bulky silhouette and white eyebrow in deep forest point to this species.
Biology
Habitat, diet, behavior, and conservation
Habitat and range
This page does not colour a municipality-by-municipality map. The 2024 checklist confirms country-level resident, migrant and winter-visitor status but does not publish a regional gazetteer. Do not assume it occurs evenly across Georgia, including treeless high plateaus. Abuladze (2011) treats it in Georgia as an uncommon or locally rare year-round resident with local vertical movements. For breeding it prefers mature or middle-aged dense forest — deciduous, coniferous, or mixed. Passage is described as more frequent in the lowlands of western Georgia and in the valleys of large rivers in the east; winter visitors are called widespread, but that is not a municipality list. The Ilia State University SPA checklist gives YR-R, M; the 2024 Sandgrouse checklist adds WV. In autumn the eastern Black Sea bottleneck near Batumi (Sakhalvasho, Shuamta) is a watchpoint, but the species is scarce there, passes low and solitarily, and complete counts are difficult. A separate national elevation band for Georgia is not published here.
Diet
A tabulated Georgian diet study is not given on this page. Abuladze (2011) collected prey remains and pellets at nests, but his prey list is not reproduced here. At species level it takes medium-sized birds (pigeons, corvids, thrushes, gamebirds) and mammals (squirrels, rabbits). It hunts by surprise in woodland or at the forest edge. In western Georgia it was traditionally flown by bazieri falconers at common quail; that is cultural use, not a diet sample for this page. It is not food for people.
Behavior
It is active by day. In woodland it is fast and agile: short broad wings and a relatively long tail with a rounded tip. Flight is often flap-flap-glide, but the silhouette is bulkier than a sparrowhawk — deeper chest, broader wing bases, a comparatively shorter tail. The call is a loud, resonant kek-kek-kek or similar series, slower and deeper than the sparrowhawk, mostly near the nest. The recording on this page is xeno-canto XC396773 (Alvaro Ortiz Troncoso): an adult female alarm call at an urban cemetery in Germany, not a Georgian recording. Do not handle it; birds may be aggressive at the nest. The nest is a stick platform in a tree. At species level clutches are often two to four eggs and incubation about five weeks; NPLG gives 2–4 eggs in April and notes that incubation length for the Caucasian form is not established. That is not a Georgian nest sample on this page. The 2024 checklist treats the species as a breeding resident in Georgia. Northern populations migrate; local birds stay more often, sometimes shifting altitude. Georgia has all three components: local breeders, passage birds, and winter visitors.
Conservation
BirdLife International assesses Accipiter gentilis as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. The 2024 Georgian checklist assigns LC globally and nationally. Abuladze’s 2011 summary speaks of about 240–250 breeding pairs, after a decline in the 1950s–1970s and a moderate increase in the 1980s–1990s; that is a then-current estimate, not a 2024 national census. A Kartli-area paper in the same 2011 volume gives 20–25 pairs locally — a regional figure, not a national one. The 2014 Georgian Red List (Decree No. 190) includes Levant sparrowhawk (Accipiter brevipes, VU), not this species. Accipitridae are on CITES Appendix II. Local pressure is documented in the Batumi bottleneck: illegal shooting and traditional trapping for falconry in Adjara. Do not take wild birds without a permit. Species-level historical pressures include persecution, felling of mature forest, and pesticides; a measured recent Georgian population trend is not given on this page.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the most important questions about Eurasian goshawk.
Yes. The 2024 annotated checklist of the birds of Georgia confirms it as a year-round resident, a passage migrant and a winter visitor (YR-R; M; WV).
In mature or middle-aged dense forest. Passage is described as more frequent in western Georgian lowlands and large river valleys in the east, following Abuladze 2011. It is scarce in the Batumi bottleneck in autumn. This page does not map every region.
A bulky woodland hawk with a white eyebrow, dark cap, short broad wings and a rounded tail. Adults are grey with fine-barred underparts; juveniles are brown with lengthwise spots. Sparrowhawk is much smaller.
About 49–64 cm long at species level, with a wingspan often about 90–125 cm. Females are clearly larger than males. A separate measured series from Georgia is not given on this page.
Mainly medium-sized birds and mammals. Diet in Georgia is not tabulated on this page.
All year as a resident, and also as a passage migrant and winter visitor, according to the 2024 checklist.
Yes. YR-R on the 2024 checklist means a breeding resident. Named nest sites in Georgia are not listed on this page.
It is harmless. Globally and nationally LC on the 2024 checklist. It is not on the 2014 Georgian Red List (Levant sparrowhawk is VU there). Do not take wild birds.
- Budagashvili & Javakhishvili 2024 — The birds of Georgia (Sandgrouse 46)
- Abuladze 2011 — Accipiter hawks in Georgia (Birds of Prey and Owls in Caucasus)
- Abuladze 2013 — Birds of Prey of Georgia
- Ilia State University — SPA bird checklist
- Hoekstra et al. 2020 — Batumi Raptor Count (British Birds)
- Wehrmann et al. 2019 — Batumi Raptor Count data paper (ZooKeys)
- Batumi Raptor Count — Autumn report 2023
- Sándor et al. — Raptor shooting in the Batumi bottleneck (OSME)
- BirdLife DataZone — Northern Goshawk
- IUCN Red List — Accipiter gentilis
- IOC World Bird List
- Avibase — Georgia bird checklist
- საქართველოს მთავრობის დადგენილება №190 (2014) — წითელი ნუსხა
- NPLG Wiki Dictionaries — ქორი
- EUNIS — Accipiter gentilis
- CITES Appendices
- BTO BirdFacts — Goshawk
- Mlodinow 2024 — Birds of the World (Astur gentilis)
- Wikimedia Commons — Riga (Jevgenijs Slihto, CC BY 2.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Stockholm (Holger.Ellgaard, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — adult male, Berlin (Norbert Kenntner, CC BY-SA 3.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — juvenile in flight, Helsinki (Thermos, CC BY-SA 3.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Cologne (Afr.1994, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- xeno-canto XC396773 — Accipiter gentilis (Alvaro Ortiz Troncoso, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Species profiles are compiled from peer-reviewed literature and established biodiversity databases, and are reviewed as new taxonomic and conservation data become available.
Related guides
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