Northern Goshawk

©Amber Burnette

Published: January 30, 2005

Amber Burnette of Minneapolis captured this close-up shot of a male Northern Goshawk at a banding station near Duluth, Minnesota.

The privately operated banding blind borders a wooded area and attracts accipiters, such as the goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), and Broad-winged Hawks. Amber, a student at the University of Minnesota, has assisted the banders as a spotter and data recorder for about eight years. The banders use a lure on a pulley system in between two nets to capture the birds.

"Goshawks, as a rule, are pretty vocal, even the juveniles," she tells us. "So in most of the pictures of goshawks I have taken over the years, the birds all have their mouths open. We saw this bird circle around from up in the sky. He came just over the tops of some bushes in a draw in the field just in front of us, using the typical accipiter hide-and-ambush type of hunting style."

She shot the photo with a Gateway MC-50 camera in October.

View photos of other hawks:
- Harris's Hawk
- Red-shouldered Hawk eating a squirrel
- Red-shouldered Hawk taking flight
- Red-tailed Hawk flying
- Red-tailed Hawk diving
- Cooper's Hawk flying


See Amber's photo of a Peregrine Falcon.

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