Current view: Data table and detailed info
Taxonomic source(s)
Christidis, L. and Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia.
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
IUCN Red List criteria met and history
Red List criteria met
Red List history
Migratory status |
not a migrant |
Forest dependency |
medium |
Land-mass type |
Australia
|
Average mass |
- |
Population justification:
This species' extreme scarcity and low density make its population size difficult to determine, reflected in a range of population estimates (using different methodologies) over the past 30 years; all, however, have suggested there are many fewer than 2,500 mature individuals. The most recent estimate, made in 2012 (DERM 2012) suggested that the population size was 700 pairs, including 100 pairs on the Tiwi islands. This was derived from data on recorded distances between breeding pairs’ nests that suggested a density of one breeding pair per 10 km of creek or river in core areas, and half that density elsewhere. These figures are higher than those used by Aumann and Baker-Gabb (1991), who suspected densities less than half those adopted by DERM (2012), and a global population size of c.350 pairs (700 mature individuals). The population size adopted here follows MacColl et al. (2021), who estimated using these previous density estimates and more contemporary data on distribution that there are between 900 and 1,400 mature individuals.
Trend justification: There is some regional variation, but overall the population is inferred to be experiencing an ongoing decline, although the rate of this remains unquantified. The 10–30 pairs estimated in the South Eastern Queensland bioregion in 2012 (see DERM 2012) appear no longer to be present (Seaton 2014), apparently going extinct sometime before 2010, while the species gradually declined to extinction in New South Wales over the 1980s and 1990s (Cooper et al. 2014). On the Tiwi Islands, nest success monitored annually has not changed significantly since 2001 (2001–2010: 50 nests, 0.56 ± 0.35 (0–1.33) fledglings/nest; 2011–2019: 100 nests, 0.69 ± 0.40 (0.4–1.6); S. Ryan unpublished, in MacColl et al. 2021) with most of the difference between years being explained by complete nest failure caused by a cyclone in 2005 and increases in monitoring effort. Records south of Cape York Peninsula over the past decade are increasingly scant, although some places where recorded historically (e.g. Shoalwater Bay) have not been surveyed recently. An ongoing decline is therefore inferred, with habitat degradation and loss (the principal cause of losses over the past three generations) an ongoing threat.
Country/territory distribution
Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Red Goshawk Erythrotriorchis radiatus. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/red-goshawk-erythrotriorchis-radiatus on 23/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 23/11/2024.