The only known recording (context unknown, but perhaps territorial call) is of a rather sharp, insistent, rising series of whistles.

All dark blue-slate on head and upperparts, but slightly paler cheeks, some white showing on the nape, whitish or chestnut mottling on the throat, and many inconspicuous darker tail-bars; in contrast, breast and abdomen are all cinnamon-chestnut rather obscurely barred with white, with some variation.

[6] Juveniles have strongly patterned blackish brown above, with paler, white-streaked heads, black-spotted nape, and broad bars of light and dark on flight feathers and tail, as well as thin tips of rufous and bars of white on back and coverts; apart from white throat with few dark spots, all creamy below, boldly barred with blackish brown on breast and with rufous on abdomen and thighs.

Closest in size is the relatively longer-winged and shorter-tailed Grey Goshawk: adult have a paler grey on their head, back, and wing, with a reddish-brown collar around their neck; juveniles are rather like juvenile Moluccan Goshawk, but much less strongly patterned above and less barred on their underside, with streaked breast and contrasting reddish-brown barred flanks.

Then the adult Rufous-necked Sparrowhawk, altogether smaller and shorter-tailed, also has a clear reddish-brown collar, whiter throat, pinker breast and greyish belly; juvenile blackish above with reddish-brown edges, all boldly but relatively lightly streaked below, and in-flight body paler than underwings.

[6] The Moluccan Goshawk diet consists mainly of reptiles (lizards), small birds and mammals, and insects (such as grasshoppers).

This goshawk has relatively weak feet and a small degree of reversed size dimorphism (RSD), indicating that they are not primarily bird-eaters.

[11] Further habitat loss is due to the urbanization of North Maluku province which is undergoing rapid development which leads to a higher rate of forest conversion to agricultural fields, luckily it was found that forest loss today is viewed as negligible.

These threats have led to the decline of the Moluccan Goshawk population and today there are only about 1500-7000 adult individuals left, with 2 to 100 subpopulations.

[9] The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has declared the Moluccan Goshawk as a near-threatened species since 2014.

This status is based on its small and restricted population undergoing a suspected decline over a three-generation period (one generation is around 5.1 years).

These efforts include in-place land/water protection conservation sites across the entire range of the Goshawk population and international management and trade control of the species.