#red goshawk

Australia’s rarest raptor, the red goshawk, in flight at Newhaven wildlife sanctuary in the NT.

A new variant has been added!

Red Goshawk (Erythrotriorchis radiatus) © Donna Belder

It hatches from large, limited, northern, rare, red, rusty, tropical, and yellow eggs.

Red goshawks, Erythrotriorchis radiatus, are a ‘near threatened’ diurnal species endemic to Australia, and are one of the country’s rarest birds of prey. As with other goshawk species, they are master hunters throughout open forest, coastal or sub-coastal, savannah, or woodland areas and can adapt to catch prey in most biomes. Despite this, they have a rather specific breeding habitat, and will only nest in very tall trees near water. 

There is an estimation of fewer than 1000 individuals overall, as the species is suffering largely from habitat destruction cleared for farming (often sugar cane plantations, or urban development. Development also fragments their habitat, which can cause vulnerability to storm damage which often results in damaged or destroyed nesting sites. Sadly, land clearing in northern and eastern Australia is particularly damaging.

The Red Goshawk snatched the Swift Parrot 

from the currents of the air,

its pleas for mercy did not merit 

a single moment’s care.

Seeing this - a Zebra Finch 

said a thankful prayer 

for he’d missed the Goshawk by a pinch -