Red Goshawk of Australia Facing Extinction; Queensland Now the Only Remaining Place To Support Breeding Populations

The red goshawk (Erythrotriorchis radiatus), Australia's rarest bird of prey, is on the verge of extinction, and the only known area remaining known to maintain breeding populations is Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, SciTech Daily reported.

Chris MacColl, a Ph.D. candidate at The University of Queensland's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, led the research effort that discovered the finding and was astounded by the hawk's falling numbers.

Red Goshawk Barely Hanging On

MacColl said that Australia's rarest bird of prey has significantly lost one-third of its historical range, the area where they were previously known to occupy, over the past 40 years. Sadly, the red goshawk is barely hanging on in another 30% of regions it once inhabited.

He noted that the species is now extinct in some areas, particularly in New South Wales and the southern half of Queensland. Moreover, there is a drastic decline in their population as well in North Queensland, which left Cape York Peninsula as the last place where the bird is still known to exist and breed.

Today, the red goshawk's last stronghold is only the Top End, Tiwi Islands, and Kimberley, which makes northern Australia critical to the bird's ongoing survival.

Threats to Red Goshawk

With its distinctive reddish-brown plumage, deeply fingered wing tips, thick yellow legs, and huge talons, the peculiar bird of prey has long intrigued bird observers.

To identify the alarming demographic patterns, Science Daily reported that the study team reviewed four decades of observations by citizen scientists. MacColl said that they suspect habitat loss and degradation to have played a significant influence on the population decline of red goshawk over that period.

Professor James Watson, the co-author of the study, added that the catastrophic decrease in the species' population indicates that governments should play a proactive role in safeguarding the remaining habitats of the red goshawk. With what they saw throughout the eastern range, the study shows that expansion in agricultural, mining, and gas developments in northern Australia poses a great threat to the red goshawk.

He pointed out that Northern Australia is home to the biggest intact tropical savanna habitat in the world, teeming with wildlife and the red goshawk as its top predator. For now, conservation is focused on these locations to help not only the bird but also other species.

The conservation team supports requests for the Commonwealth Government to change the red goshawk's national conservation classification into Endangered from Vulnerable to provide it with higher conservation priority.

More About Red Goshawk

According to the Australian Wildlife Conservatory, the red goshawk is a powerful red hawk that uses its huge yellow feet and talons to catch its avian prey. They like large expanses of tall open woods where they could hunt under the canopy.

Their nests could be found high on a tall tree along a ridgeline where a body of water is close. These birds usually hunt lorikeets, and other birds, such as Kookaburras, Currawong, and cockatoos.

Long ago, they could be found on the east coast as far as Sydney. However, as their population continued to decline, they remained in the northern area.

Check out more news and information on Endangered Species in Science Times.