Northern Goshawk Accipiter gentilis
Northern Goshawk, Cheli La Pass, Paro, Bhutan, March 2008 - click for larger image Cheli La Pass, Paro, Bhutan
March 2008

The Northern Goshawk is distributed across the temperate zones of the northern hemisphere from the tree line southwards. It is found mainly in coniferous forest but also in mixed and broadleaf forest. It is usually below about 1,000 metres but can be found as high as 4,000 metres in Bhutan.
Northern Goshawk, Cheli La Pass, Paro, Bhutan, March 2008 - click for larger image It is a large accipiter hawk with a deep-chested appearance. On first seeing this bird we wondered about its identification since it did not have the obvious white supercilium normally associated with the species. However the finely barred underparts, the orange eye and the greenish-yellow cere all pointed to it being a Northern Goshawk as did the flight shot.

On consulting Ferguson-Lees about the supercilium he notes "thin or thick white supercilia (more conspicuous in north Eurasian and, especially, American races)" so a Bhutanese bird will typically show only a very faint supercilium as seen in photo 1.
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