Ecology of the northern goshawk in Fennoscandia (original) (raw)

We reviewed studies on the Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) carried out in northern Europe (Fennoscandia) since the 1950s concerning the following: diet composition, breeding performance, movements, home range, survival, and population trends. Goshawks feed mainly on forest grouse throughout the year in boreal forests but rely more on Ring-necked Pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) and hares (Lepus spp.) in mixed deciduous-coniferous forests in southern Fennoscandia. Breeding density of the goshawks varies from one–fi ve pairs/100 km2, on average three pairs/100 km2. Mean clutch size (3.5), brood size (2.8), and productivity of fl edglings (2) per occupied territory have remained stable over the decades irrespective of the decline of the forest grouse. Proportion of grouse in the diet as well as breeding output closely followed the density of grouse during the1950s–1970s with relatively dense grouse populations but this close connection has recently disappeared, probably due to a d...

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