American Goshawk Breeding Ecology and Microclimate

This goshawk population is unique in its connectivity across multiple forested mountain ranges of southern Idaho and northern Utah, whose territories consist of naturally fragmented stands of mixed conifer and aspen, all nested within a predominantly sagebrush-steppe ecosystem. While goshawks can and do take advantage of this fragmented forest habitat during the breeding season, they are considered sensitive to exposure induced by low canopy cover and to temperature extremes, though these relationships have not been extensively studied at fine spatial scales. Forest temperatures are variable and known to deviate from local weather station temperature data due to heterogeneity in topography and vegetation structure, among other factors. Jessy’s thesis addresses this research gap by placing thermologgers in known goshawk nest structures, quantifying canopy cover using smartphone hemispherical panoramas, and conducting survival analyses of nestlings incorporating these data. Using a more biologically relevant scale of temperature data may reveal insight on goshawk nest microclimate-nestling survival dynamics that has not been previously documented.

Jessy Wilson is a master’s student studying raptor biology at Boise State University. Before reaching her current progress in her graduate degree, Jessy spent several years migrating to places where she could study raptor species, including California Condor recovery efforts in southern California and Arizona/Utah, Snail Kite breeding monitoring in the Florida everglades, hawk migration banding in Minnesota and Idaho, and Golden Eagle nest monitoring along the Snake River.

This program is free and open to all but registration is required. please click the link below to register.

For those not able to join via Zoom, we will live stream the program on our HMA Facebook page as well. Recordings of all programs will be available on our website, hawkmigration.org, following the event.

We hope to see you there!