A rare patient arrived at our wildlife hospital recently: a juvenile Northern Goshawk, a powerful forest raptor not often seen in the Bay Area. In fact, since 1995, we have treated only two other goshawks.
This young bird was brought to us after striking a residential window in Pleasant Hill.
Window strikes may seem surprising, but they are one of the most common and deadly threats birds face, impacting hundreds of species each year. Birds do not recognize glass as a barrier and instead mistake reflections of sky and trees for open habitat, often with devastating consequences.