Berlin's Urban Goshawks: A Model for British Urban Areas?

Producing rapid keck-keck-keck calls that echoed across a downtown Berlin green space, the goshawks climbed far over the canopy and wheeled before swooping down to drive away a disorganized group of crows that had started to mob them.

"It's essentially a flying superhero bringing law and order to the urban environment," remarked a conservationist, observing the large light-breasted birds through binoculars. "They are like fighter jets."

The Accipiter gentilis is an apex predator – and conservationists hope it will soon deliver wonder and delight to UK cities, mirroring its presence in European urban areas. In the United Kingdom, this fast-moving raptor was hunted to near extinction and only began to recover in countryside regions during the 1960s. It is still widely targeted on private lands and hunting grounds.

Thriving in European Cities

In other parts of the continent, the northern goshawk is doing well – even in busy capitals such as the German capital, Amsterdam, and the Czech capital. From a public garden in Berlin, where a large eyrie rested in the top of a tree under 100 metres from a war memorial, the "phantom of the forest" hunts pigeons in the roads and even perches on rooftops.

The raptors have adapted to heavy traffic – although tall transparent structures still present a threat – and are far more comfortable with the steady stream of pet owners, runners, and schoolchildren than their forest-dwelling relatives would be with humans.

"It is just like any green space in the UK, that's the amazing thing," commented the head of a conservation initiative, which aims to bring these raptors to Chester and London in the initial phase of a project introducing them to urban environments. "It proves this can be accomplished quickly – with little much fuss, but with so much enthusiasm."

Urban Reintroduction Plan

The expert is planning to submit a application for the "urban reintroduction" of the northern goshawk to the authorities in the coming weeks; the plan envisions the freeing of 15 birds in each of the two cities, obtained as juveniles from natural continental nests and British breeders.

He expects they will provide help of the UK's struggling songbirds by preying on mid-sized predators such as corvids, magpies, and jackdaws, whose populations have grown without control and endangered birds further down the food chain.

Their presence should have an instant effect on the "brazen" medium-sized birds that attack tiny species that people love, says the conservationist, pointing to a similar phenomenon documented in canine predators. "This is what's called an landscape of fear. Everybody knows the apex predators are in town."

Potential Hurdles and Dangers

Rewilding efforts throughout the continent have encountered strong opposition from farmers and political factions in the past decade, as big predators such as wild canines and ursines have come back to lands now populated by people. As their numbers have grown, they have started to eat livestock and in certain instances confront humans.

The reintroduction of the raptor into city England is not expected to trigger a similar resistance – the species already reside in other parts of the nation, and pet-owners and urban gardeners have little to worry about from them – but the species has caused tensions even in urban centers it has inhabited for years.

In the German capital, where an estimated 100 breeding pairs constitute the highest-known density in the globe, and additional European cities, goshawks have turned into the focus of bird fanciers whose birds are being eaten.

A researcher who has researched goshawk adaptation to city environments used GPS transmitters to follow 60 birds as part of her PhD, and says that while there could be possible benefits from employing these predators to control mesopredators in UK cities, chicks taken from rural nests may struggle to adapt to city life and emphasized the importance to include all stakeholders early on. "Overall, it's a hazardous endeavour."

Scientific Opinions

An ornithologist who has studied goshawk behaviour in non-urban Britain commented it was uncertain if the birds would choose to stay in cities and unlikely that the suggested quantity would be sufficient to have a significant positive effect on garden bird populations. "What is the fate of those 15 birds?" he asked. "I suspect is they'll probably disperse into the closest countryside."

The conservationist is nevertheless optimistic about the project's prospects. The expert, who has previously been granted a licence to track the Scottish wildcat and was a technical adviser for a project that reintroduced the great bustard back to the United Kingdom, contends that handling releases in a "welfare-based manner" is the key to success.

Past Rewilding Attempts

The conservationist's initial effort to reintroduce lynx to the United Kingdom was rejected by the government official on the recommendation of the wildlife agency in 2018. A preliminary proposal for a test reintroduction has also met opposition, even though the chair of the environmental body recently showed interest about the idea of reintroducing the feline predator during his two-year tenure.

If the goshawk initiative proceeds, the raptors will be fitted with GPS transmitters – an endeavour expected to account for almost 50% of the projected budget of £110,000 – and be provided a steady supply of nourishment for as much as is needed after being freed. In the German city, the expert stressed the psychological advantage of city-dwellers being able to observe a predator as elusive as the raptor while they conduct their lives, rather than locating rewilding projects only in rural areas.

"It will inject such excitement," he said. "Individuals go to the green space to feed birds. In the future they'll be traveling to observe goshawks."