Species Potentially Present on the Sioux District, Custer National Forest 



Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) 



Distribution: Breeds in North America from western Alaska east to eastern Labrador within the 

 boreal forest, south in the west to northern Arizona, New Mexico, the mountains of western 

 Mexico, and in the east south down the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia. It is 

 widespread in Montana during the breeding season mostly in the western mountains and 

 southeastern pine hills (Bergeron et al. 1992); present year-round in the Black Hills of South 

 Dakota (Pettingill and Whitney 1965, Bartelt 1974, S.D. Omithol. Union 1991), rare in 

 Harding County. 



Habitat Use: Uses a variety of forested habitats, prefering conifers, but also using deciduous 

 forest stands (see Younk and Bechard 1994). Breeding season prey tend to be woodland 

 species; in northern Arizona coniferous forests (Boal and Mannan 1994), ground squirrels, 

 chipmunks, tree squirrels, and cottontail rabbits comprised the majority of mammalian prey 

 (94% of prey biomass), while jays and woodpeckers accounted for the majority of the birds 

 (6% of prey biomass). Mammalian prey are also predominant in Nevada aspen forests 

 (Younk and Bechard 1994). 



Nest Sites: Nests are in trees and composed of small and medium-sized twigs, forming a 



platform about 0.6 m diameter (Call 1978). In western Montana and northern Idaho (on both 

 sides of the Continental Divide), prefers to nest in mature forest stands with high canopy 

 closure (78-80%) and large forest openings < 1 km distant (Hayward and Escano 1989); nest 

 trees (9) averaged 22 m tall, and nest height averaged 10 m above ground. 



Breeding Phenology: Nesting lasts from late March to early August in the Black Hills, South 

 Dakota (S.D. Omithol. Union 1991). 



Status: May breed in low numbers in units of the Sioux District. Becker (1978, pers. comm.) 

 reported no breeding records from Carter County, Montana. Historical breeding season 

 records exist from the "Cave Hills" (Visher 1914), and an adult with two fledglings was seen 

 in the Slim Buttes in 1976 (see Appendix 3). During the 1994 survey one adult was observed 

 along Capitol Rock Road (T3S R62E S6) in the Long Pines on 12 June, but no evidence of 

 nesting was indicated. In 1976, a nest was found in a dense stand of ponderosa pine in the 

 Wolf Mountains, Big Horn County, Montana (Phillips etal. 1990) about 225 km (140 miles) 

 west of the Sioux District. Seven nests have been reported from the Ashland District (Custer 

 National Forest) about 120 km (80 miles) west in Rosebud and Powder River counties, 

 Montana during 1985-1991 (McCarty, pers. comm.). Two nests were found in 1981 in 

 adjacent Campbell County, Wyoming (Phillips and Beske 1990). Northern Goshawks 

 probably have nested on the Sioux District more frequently than current records indicate. 

 Extensive loss of forest canopy from wildfire, however, has greatly reduced suitable nesting 

 habitat on the district. Numbers appear to be declining significantly in Montana and western 

 North and South Dakota (Dobkin 1994). Nonetheless, White (1994) suggested that 

 populations may be relatively stable over much of their range. U.S.F.S. Sensitive Status; 

 U.S.F.W.S. C2 Status (candidate for Federal Listing). 



Natural Heritage Program rank: G5; S3S4 in Montana, S3B,S2N in South Dakota 



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