Microhabitat Characteristics of Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) Nest Sites in the Naturally Fragmented Forests of the Northern Great Basin, USA

The Northern Goshawk ( Accipiter gentilis ) occupies a variety of habitats across its Holarctic range. The goshawk has generally shown great flexibility in its use of habitat structure, but at the local level, a population may thrive under more specific conditions, rendering habitat models developed elsewhere less useful. We set forth to identify and quantify important characteristics of the habitat used by goshawks within the high-elevation mixed forest and shrub-steppe landscape of the northern Great Basin in south-central Idaho. We quantified micro- and macro-habitat characteristics associated with currently used goshawk territories within our study area to better inform local forest management practices and to provide additional clarity to the established literature on goshawk sensitivity to forest structural changes.