Page Index

posted September 26th, 2010; last edited September 26th, 2010 –– David Sibley

Bill size, not shape, distinguishes Cackling and Canada Goose

This shows Canada Goose above and Cackling Goose below. Could you identify the species by bill shape alone?

I recently checked the bill length to bill depth ratios of Cackling and Canada Geese, expecting to find a consistent and useful difference. The bills of Cackling Geese are often described as “stubby” and I was [...]

posted October 20th, 2009; last edited April 8th, 2010 –– David Sibley

Ageing Canada Geese

Determining the age of a goose can be helpful for identification, and can also reveal some interesting behavioral and ecological information by enabling you to sort out family groups and subflocks. Given good views it’s not hard to distinguish Canada Geese that are still in juvenal plumage from those that are in adult plumage. By [...]

posted November 17th, 2008; last edited April 9th, 2010 –– David Sibley

Lesser Canada Goose in the northeastern US

The primary challenge of distinguishing Canada from Cackling Goose centers on the intermediate-sized ‘Lesser’ Canada Goose, B. c. parvipes, which reportedly nests across the boreal forest regions of western Canada and interior Alaska (more details on my website here). I’ve seen a few birds that I thought were ‘Lesser’ in the northeast over the years, [...]

posted July 7th, 2007; last edited October 4th, 2010 –– David Sibley

Distinguishing Cackling and Canada Goose

October 7, 2004

One of the most significant changes for birders in the 45th supplement of the AOU checklist (Banks et al., 2004) was the split of Canada Goose into two species. While widely anticipated – the highly variable Canada Goose has often been considered more than one species in the past – the split [...]