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Releasing quick keck-keck-keck calls that rang out across a central Berlin park, the large hawks soared high above the canopy and circled before diving downwards to drive away a disorganized flock of black birds that had started to mob them.

"It's basically a soaring Batman bringing law and order to the urban environment," stated a wildlife expert, observing the sizable pale-bellied birds through a telescope. "They're akin to stealth bombers."

The goshawk is an apex predator – and experts aspire it will soon deliver awe and delight to UK cities, following its presence in German metropolises. In the UK, this swift bird of prey was hunted to virtual disappearance and only started to recover in countryside regions during the mid-20th century. It remains widely persecuted on private lands and grouse moors.

Thriving in European Cities

In different parts of the continent, the northern goshawk is doing well – even in busy cities such as the German capital, the Dutch capital, and Prague. From a park in Berlin, where a sizable nest sat in the top of a tree less than 100 metres from a monument, the elusive hunter hunts pigeons in the streets and even rests on building tops.

The birds have adjusted to heavy traffic – although high glass buildings still pose a threat – and are much more comfortable with the steady stream of pet owners, runners, and kids than their forest-dwelling counterparts would be with humans.

"It is just like any green space in the United Kingdom, that's the magical thing," commented the head of a rewilding initiative, which aims to introduce goshawks to two UK cities in the first stage of a program reintroducing them to urban environments. "It proves this can be accomplished quickly – without much fuss, but with great enthusiasm."

Urban Reintroduction Proposal

The expert is planning to submit a proposal for the "assisted colonisation" of the goshawk to the regulator in the coming weeks; the plan foresees the freeing of 15 birds in each of the selected urban areas, obtained as juveniles from natural continental eyries and UK breeders.

He hopes they will provide help of Britain's struggling songbirds by preying on mesopredators such as crows, black-and-white birds, and jackdaws, whose populations have increased unchecked and endangered birds further down the ecological pyramid.

Their arrival should have an instant effect on the "bold" mid-sized birds that attack smaller ones that people adore, explains the scientist, referencing a similar effect documented in wolves. "It's what's called an ecology of fear. Everybody knows the big guys are in town."

Potential Hurdles and Dangers

Conservation efforts throughout the continent have faced fierce resistance from agricultural workers and activist factions in the past decade, as large predators such as wild canines and ursines have come back to lands now inhabited by people. As their numbers have expanded, they have started to eat farm animals and in certain instances attack individuals.

The reintroduction of the raptor into city Britain is not expected to spark a similar backlash – the species already live in other parts of the country, and animal guardians and urban gardeners have minimal to fear from them – but the bird has created conflicts even in urban centers it has inhabited for years.

In Berlin, where an estimated 100 mated couples constitute the largest density in the world, and other European towns, goshawks have turned into the focus of bird fanciers whose birds are being eaten.

A researcher who has studied goshawk adaptation to urban settings employed GPS trackers to follow 60 goshawks as part of her doctorate, and states that while there could be potential benefits from using these predators to control mid-level predators in British cities, chicks removed from countryside homes may struggle to adapt to urban life and emphasized the importance to involve all stakeholders from the start. "In general, it's a hazardous endeavour."

Scientific Views

An ornithologist who has studied goshawk behavior in rural England said it was uncertain if the birds would choose to stay in urban environments and unlikely that the suggested numbers would be sufficient to have a significant beneficial impact on garden bird populations. "What is the fate of those 15 birds?" he asked. "I suspect is they'll probably scatter into the closest countryside."

The conservationist is nonetheless upbeat about the initiative's prospects. The expert, who has in the past been awarded a permit to tag the Scottish wildcat and was a scientific adviser for a program that brought the large bird back to the United Kingdom, argues that approaching releases in a "humane way" is the essential element to achievement.

Previous Reintroduction Attempts

The conservationist's first effort to reintroduce wild cats to the UK was rejected by the government official on the recommendation of the nature body in 2018. A preliminary proposal for a trial release has also faced opposition, although the chair of the nature body recently expressed interest about the idea of reintroducing the feline predator during his 24-month term.

If the goshawk project proceeds, the raptors will be fitted with GPS devices – an task projected to account for almost 50% of the estimated budget of £110,000 – and be given a steady source of food for as long as is needed after being freed. In the German city, the expert highlighted the psychological benefit of urban residents being able to observe a hunter as elusive as the raptor while they conduct their lives, rather than placing rewilding schemes only in countryside locations.

"It'll inject such thrill," he declared. "People visit the park to feed birds. In the future they'll be going to see hawks."