New technology which enables the evaluation of habitat quality in macro scale using the information of species distributions and environmental factors is developing rapidly. Raptors’ habitat requirement and ecological characteristics remain to be clarified because they have wide home range and are often low density. Especially, most species of raptors are rare and umbrella species in Japan, whereas there is little information of the habitat quality on a regional/national scale. Thus, it is important that not individual but also habitat of raptors are protected and conserved appropriately thorough the evaluation of habitat quality. In this study, we estimated Goshawk’s habitat suitability for nesting site using species distribution modeling based on geolocation data of nest across the country and GIS data (e.g., vegetation, land use). In the result, we showed the important environment factors varied in spatial scale (i.e., national/regional scales) and among regions (i.e., Kanto/Tohoku regions). In conclusion, we discussed the potential and problems of habitat evaluation for raptors using species distribution modeling.
