The normal quarry for the goshawk includes which of the following?

The goshawk is a powerful and acrobatic bird of prey known for its ability to hunt a variety of quarry. The correct answer highlights typical prey that includes larger game birds and mammals, such as pheasants, waterfowl, grouse, cottontails, and jack rabbits.

These choices align with the goshawk's hunting strategy, which often involves taking advantage of its speed and agility to pursue larger and more robust creatures. Their diet is characterized by a preference for medium to large-sized birds and mammals, which provides the necessary sustenance for such a formidable predator.

In contrast, the other options mention smaller species like sparrows and starlings or limit the quarry to combinations that don't fully capture the goshawk's typical prey range, thus making them less representative of the species’ hunting habits. The goshawk's preference for larger prey helps explain why the first option, which includes mildly sized birds and small mammals, and the last choice, while close, doesn't reflect the diversity in size and type of prey the goshawk can handle, leading to the selection of option C as the most accurate depiction of the goshawk’s normal quarry.