American Goshawk

Male: 21″ to 23″ in length
36 ″ to 42″ wingspan

Female: 23″ to 25″ in length
42 ″ to 48″ wingspan

Breeding: Mature woodlands near clearings or edges

Migration: Forest edges

Mid-March to early April and September to November

Uncommon and irruptive migrant, scattered breeder

The Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union All Seasons Species Occurrence Map

Genus
American Goshawk was formerly placed in the genus Accipiter, which contained about 50 species. Recent molecular DNA studies showed that the genus contained members with different evolutionary ancestors – it was polyphyletic. A DNA study of the Family Accipitridae (Catanach et al., 2024) confirmed that the genus Accipiter was polyphyletic, and proposed a revision of the family so that all species were in monophyletic groups. Most Accipiter species were moved to five new or resurrected genera. Nine species, including Cooper’s Hawk and American Goshawk, were moved to the resurrected genus Astur.

The revision has been widely but not universally accepted. For American Goshawk, Avibase - The World Bird Database, Cornell Lab of Ornithology Birds of the World, iNaturalist, and International Ornithological Congress (IOC) World Bird List use the name Astur atricapillus. American Ornithological Society (AOS), Catalog of Life, ITIS, NatureServe, and NCBI use the name Accipiter atricapillus. The AOS is the governing authority for bird names in North America. Since they have not yet adopted the revision, the official scientific name of American Goshawk in North America remains Accipiter atricapillus. That may soon change.

Species
This species was formerly classified as Accipiter gentilis. The Northern Goshawk group in North America, which includes three subspecies, was previously treated as belonging to the same species (conspecific) as the Eurasian group, which includes seven subspecies. A recent mitochondrial DNA study (Kunz et al. 2019) suggests that the North American and Eurasian groups do not share a common ancestor – they are polyphyletic. A later study of the vocalizations of North American and Eurasian groups (Sangster 2022) showed non-overlapping durations of the calls and other significant differences. Based on this, on the DNA study, and on morphological differences, the author proposed separating the species. In 2023, the American Ornithological Society separated the North American group as American Goshawk (Accipiter atricapillus), and the Eurasian group as Eurasian Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis).

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