Abstract

Following the recent split of ‘Northern Goshawk’ into American Goshawk Accipiter atricapillus and Eurasian Goshawk A. gentilis, this paper summarises the taxonomy, identification and movements of the newly split Nearctic species and reviews the historical British claims. TaxonomyAlthough ‘American Goshawk’ was historically treated as a species in its own right (Chesser et al. 2023), the American Accipiter atricapillus and ‘Eurasian Goshawk’s A. gentilis have in the modern era been treated as a single Holarctic-wide species – Northern Goshawk – with ten subspecies. However, Gill et al. (2023) split the Nearctic and Palearctic populations into American Goshawk and Eurasian Goshawk respectively, a treatment also adopted by the American Ornithologists’ Union (Chesser et al. 2023).This adds to a growing list of previously Holarctic taxa now recognised as separate Nearctic and Palearctic species. These include, for example, Northern Harrier Circus hudsonius and Hen Harrier C. cyaneus, and Wilson’s Snipe Gallinago delicata and Common Snipe G. gallinago.