eWestern Birds
The Quarterly Journal of Western Field Ornithologists
Northern Goshawk: First Nesting Record for Santa Barbara County and Current Breeding Status in Southern California
Peter A. Gaede, David Kisner, and Hugh Ranson
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 times in the Cuyamaca Mts., San Diego County (1937–1938), and once at Big Pine Mt., Santa Barbara County (2009). The nest at Big Pine Mt. was notable not 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.