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Emitting quick keck-keck-keck sounds that echoed through a downtown Berlin park, the goshawks climbed high above the canopy and wheeled before swooping down to scatter a ragged group of black birds that had started to mob them.

"It's basically a soaring superhero enforcing law and order to the city," remarked a wildlife expert, watching the sizable light-breasted birds through a telescope. "They're akin to stealth bombers."

The Accipiter gentilis is an top predator – and conservationists aspire it will soon bring awe and joy to UK cities, following its presence in German metropolises. In the United Kingdom, this swift raptor was persecuted to virtual extinction and just started to bounce back in countryside areas during the mid-20th century. It remains commonly targeted on private lands and hunting grounds.

Thriving in Continental Cities

In different parts of Europe, the northern goshawk is doing well – even in busy cities such as the German capital, Amsterdam, and Prague. From a park in the city, where a large eyrie sat in the crown of a tree under 100 metres from a monument, the "phantom of the forest" hunts city birds in the streets and even rests on building tops.

The birds have adapted to busy vehicle flow – although tall transparent structures still present a threat – and are far more comfortable with the constant flow of pet owners, runners, and schoolchildren than their forest-dwelling relatives would be with humans.

"It is just like any green space in the UK, that's the amazing thing," commented the director of a conservation initiative, which aims to introduce these raptors to two UK cities in the initial phase of a program reintroducing them to urban environments. "It demonstrates this can be done quickly – with little difficulty, but with great excitement."

Urban Reintroduction Proposal

The expert is preparing to submit a application for the "urban reintroduction" of the northern goshawk to the authorities in the coming weeks; the plan envisions the freeing of 15 birds in each of the selected urban areas, sourced as chicks from wild European nests and UK aviaries.

He expects they will provide help of the UK's struggling songbirds by preying on mesopredators such as corvids, magpies, and small crows, whose populations have grown unchecked and threatened birds lower on the food chain.

Their arrival should have an immediate effect on the "brazen" mid-sized birds that attack smaller ones that people adore, explains the scientist, pointing to a similar effect documented in canine predators. "This is what's known as an ecology of fear. Everybody realizes the apex predators are in town."

Possible Challenges and Dangers

Rewilding projects throughout the continent have encountered fierce opposition from agricultural workers and political factions in recent years, as large carnivores such as wolves and bears have come back to territories now inhabited by humans. As their populations have grown, they have started to eat farm animals and in certain instances attack individuals.

The introduction of the raptor into city England is unlikely to spark a comparable resistance – the species already live in different parts of the nation, and animal guardians and city residents have little to worry about from them – but the species has caused conflicts even in urban centers it has long called home.

In Berlin, where an estimated 100 breeding pairs represent the largest concentration in the globe, and additional European cities, goshawks have turned into the focus of bird fanciers whose birds are being eaten.

A researcher who has studied goshawk adjustment to city environments employed GPS transmitters to follow 60 goshawks as part of her doctorate, and states that although there could be possible advantages from employing these predators to regulate mid-level predators in British cities, young birds taken from countryside nests may struggle to adapt to urban life and emphasized the importance to involve all stakeholders early on. "In general, it's a risky business."

Scientific Opinions

An ornithologist who has examined hawk behavior in rural England said it was unclear if the birds would decide to stay in urban environments and unlikely that the suggested numbers would be enough to have a significant positive effect on garden bird populations. "What will happen of those 15 birds?" he said. "My guess is they'll likely scatter into the closest countryside."

The conservationist is nevertheless upbeat about the project's chances. The expert, who has in the past been awarded a permit to tag the Highland tiger and was a technical adviser for a project that reintroduced the large bird back to the UK, argues that approaching releases in a "welfare-based manner" is the key to success.

Previous Rewilding Efforts

The conservationist's initial effort to reintroduce wild cats to the United Kingdom was refused by the environment official on the advice of the nature agency in recent years. A draft proposal for a test reintroduction has also met resistance, even though the chair of the environmental organization recently showed enthusiasm about the prospect of releasing lynx during his two-year term.

If the goshawk project goes ahead, the birds will be fitted with GPS transmitters – an task expected to account for almost half of the projected project cost of £110,000 – and be given a regular source of food for as long as is required after being freed. In the German city, the conservationist stressed the mental advantage of city-dwellers being able to spot a predator as secretive as the goshawk while they conduct their daily routines, rather than locating rewilding schemes exclusively in countryside locations.

"It'll inject such excitement," he said. "People visit the park to feed birds. Soon they'll be traveling to see hawks."