🔗 Share this article

Emitting swift keck-keck-keck sounds that rang out across a downtown Berlin park, the large hawks soared high over the canopy and wheeled before swooping down to scatter a ragged group of crows that had started to mob them.

"It's essentially a soaring Batman bringing justice to the city," stated a conservationist, observing the large pale-bellied birds through binoculars. "They're akin to fighter jets."

The Accipiter gentilis is an apex predator – and experts hope it will soon bring awe and delight to British cities, following its presence in German urban areas. In the United Kingdom, this swift bird of prey was persecuted to virtual extinction and only started to recover in countryside areas during the mid-20th century. It is still widely targeted on private lands and hunting grounds.

Thriving in European Cities

In different parts of Europe, the goshawk is thriving – even in busy capitals such as Berlin, the Dutch capital, and Prague. From a public garden in the city, where a large eyrie rested in the crown of a tree under 100 metres from a war memorial, the "phantom of the forest" preys on pigeons in the streets and even rests on building tops.

The birds have adjusted to busy traffic – while tall glass buildings still pose a threat – and are far more comfortable with the constant flow of dogwalkers, joggers, and schoolchildren than their forest-dwelling counterparts would be with people.

"This is just like any green space in the UK, that's the amazing thing," said the director of a rewilding project, which aims to bring goshawks to two UK cities in the first stage of a project reintroducing them to urban environments. "It proves this can be done quickly – with little difficulty, but with so much enthusiasm."

Urban Reintroduction Proposal

The conservationist is preparing to submit a proposal for the "assisted colonisation" of the goshawk to the regulator in the near future; the scheme envisions the release of 15 birds in both of the selected urban areas, obtained as chicks from natural continental nests and British breeders.

He hopes they will provide help of Britain's struggling garden birds by hunting mesopredators such as crows, black-and-white birds, and jackdaws, whose populations have grown unchecked and threatened birds lower on the ecological pyramid.

Their arrival should have an instant impact on the "bold" medium-sized birds that attack tiny species that the public adore, says the conservationist, pointing to a comparable effect documented in canine predators. "It's what's called an landscape of fear. Everyone realizes the big guys are in town."

Possible Challenges and Risks

Rewilding efforts across the continent have faced fierce opposition from farmers and political factions in recent years, as big predators such as wild canines and ursines have come back to lands now populated by humans. As their numbers have expanded, they have started to consume livestock and in certain instances confront individuals.

The reintroduction of the raptor into urban Britain is not expected to spark a similar resistance – the birds currently live in different parts of the country, and pet-owners and urban gardeners have little to worry about from them – but the bird has created tensions even in urban centers it has inhabited for years.

In the German capital, where an approximate 100 mated couples represent the largest concentration in the globe, and other European towns, these hawks have become the focus of bird fanciers whose birds are being eaten.

A researcher who has studied raptor adaptation to urban settings employed GPS transmitters to monitor 60 birds as part of her PhD, and says that while there could be possible benefits from employing goshawks to control mid-level predators in British urban areas, young birds taken from countryside homes may struggle to adapt to city life and stressed the importance to include all stakeholders early on. "Overall, it's a hazardous endeavour."

Expert Views

An ornithologist who has examined goshawk behavior in non-urban Britain commented it was uncertain if the raptors would decide to remain in cities and unlikely that the suggested numbers would be sufficient to have a noticeable beneficial impact on garden bird numbers. "What is the fate of those 15 birds?" he asked. "My guess is they'll likely scatter into the closest countryside."

The project leader is nonetheless optimistic about the initiative's prospects. The specialist, who has previously been awarded a licence to tag the Scottish wildcat and was a technical consultant for a project that reintroduced the large bird back to the UK, contends that approaching reintroductions in a "humane way" is the essential element to success.

Previous Rewilding Efforts

The expert's first attempt to bring back wild cats to the UK was refused by the environment official on the advice of the wildlife agency in recent years. A draft proposal for a test release has also met opposition, although the head of the environmental organization lately showed interest about the idea of reintroducing lynx during his two-year term.

If the hawk project goes ahead, the birds will be fitted with GPS devices – an task projected to represent almost 50% of the projected project cost of £110,000 – and be given a regular supply of nourishment for as long as is required after being freed. In Berlin, the expert highlighted the psychological benefit of urban residents being able to observe a predator as elusive as the raptor while they go about their daily routines, rather than locating rewilding schemes only in rural areas.

"It will bring such excitement," he said. "Individuals visit the park to feed birds. Soon they'll be traveling to see goshawks."