Going extinct ‘right under our noses’: the quiet plight of Australia’s rarest bird of prey

Red Goshawk in flight at Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary NT Photograph: Tim Henderson/Australian Wildlife Conservancy

Setting up a base in the tallest tree, usually around a creek somewhere, the red goshawk will hunt beneath the canopy – chasing down speed demons such as the rainbow lorikeet and plucking them out of the air.

The soft thrum of their deep, powerful, metre-wide wings can be heard from the ground as they accelerate, before they silently swoop and bank like some feathered fighter jet.