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Articles

Vol. 41 No. 4 (2010)

NORTHERN GOSHAWK: FIRST NESTING RECORD FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY AND CURRENT BREEDING STATUS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Submitted
November 27, 2025
Published
October 1, 2010

Abstract

The Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) is extremely rare and apparently irregular as a breeding species in southern California. Nesting has been confirmed only 13 times, twice at Mt. Abel, Kern County (1989 and 1990), five times at Mt. Pinos, Kern/Ventura counties (1904, 1960, 1989, 1990, and 2009), once in Ventura County (1919), once in the San Bernardino Mts., San Bernardino County (2004), three in the Cuyamaca Mts., San Diego County (1937–1938), and once at Big Pine Mtn., Santa Barbara County (2009). The nest at Big Pine Mt. was notable only in being the first for Santa Barbara Co. but in being built in an exposed situation in a dead burned tree in partially burned forest.

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