Canada Goose

The Canada goose is a large goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks and chin, and a brown body. It is native to the Arctic and temperate regions of North America and has been introduced to places including the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, New Zealand and Japan. It is mostly a plant eater, grazing on grasses by gripping a blade and tearing it with a jerk of the head, and eating grains such as wheat, rice and corn when available. In water it feeds on aquatic plants. Most are migratory and fly in V-shaped formations, rotating the front position because flying there uses the most energy. Pairs are monogamous, and most couples stay together for life.

About the Canada goose

The Canada goose (Branta canadensis) is a large wild goose native to North America, recognized by its black head and neck, white chinstrap and brown body. It belongs to Branta, the genus of mostly black-plumaged geese, and is closely related to the cackling goose. It lives near water across Canada and the United States.

Among the "true geese," the genera Anser and Branta, the Canada goose is on average the largest living species. Birds measure 75–110 cm (30–43 in) long with a wingspan of 127–185 cm (50–73 in). Males usually weigh 2.6–6.5 kg (5.7–14.3 lb), averaging 3.9 kg (8.6 lb) across subspecies, and females 2.4–5.5 kg (5.3–12.1 lb), averaging 3.6 kg (7.9 lb). The sexes look virtually identical, but females are about 10% smaller.

Seven subspecies are recognized, and they vary a lot in size. The largest is the giant Canada goose, B. c. maxima, which rarely tops 8 kg (18 lb); one exceptional male weighed 10.9 kg (24 lb) with a wingspan of 2.24 m (7 ft 4 in), the largest wild goose of any species on record. The smallest is the lesser Canada goose, B. c. parvipes.

The black head and neck with a white chinstrap separate the Canada goose from every other goose except the cackling goose and the barnacle goose. The barnacle goose has a black breast and grayer body. Occasional birds show pale, spotted or brown necks, thought to be leucistic, or odd patches of white on the face.

Behavior and diet

Canada geese are mainly herbivores. On land they eat many kinds of grass, grasping a blade in the bill and tearing it off with a jerk of the head. They also eat beans and grains such as wheat, rice and corn. In the water they slide the bill along the bottom to pull up aquatic plants and eat algae such as seaweed. They sometimes take small insects and fish. In towns they prefer lawn grass, pick through garbage bins and accept handouts, and they like to graze in open areas with a wide view of approaching predators.

These geese are vocal. Males give the familiar honk and females a shorter, higher "hrink," and the species uses ten different calls for different situations. An agitated goose starts with a high-pitched hiss.

Canada geese find a mate in their second year and are monogamous, with most pairs staying together for life. If one dies, the other may re-pair. The nest is a shallow, down-lined depression on raised ground near water, sometimes on top of a beaver lodge. The female lays two to nine eggs, about five on average, and incubates them for 24–32 days while the male stands guard nearby.

Goslings can walk, swim and feed themselves as soon as they hatch. Parents often lead them in a line, one adult in front and one behind, and several families may merge into a crèche. Adults molt their flight feathers for 20–40 days during this period and regain flight at about the time the young first fly, at six to nine weeks. Young birds stay with their parents until after the spring migration.

Protective parents are fierce. A goose defending goslings will hiss, stand tall, spread its wings and charge, then bite and slap with its wings, whether the intruder is a blackbird or a person.

Migration is the species' signature. Flocks fly in a V formation, rotating the tiring lead position, usually at about 1 km (3,000 ft), and Canada geese have been reported as high as 9 km (29,000 ft). Autumn migration runs from September to early November. Many birds return to the same nesting ground year after year.

Eggs and goslings are taken by coyotes, foxes, raccoons, gulls, ravens, crows and bears. Adults are rarely preyed on because of their size and aggression, but coyotes, gray wolves, bald eagles, golden eagles and snowy owls can kill them.

Range and habitat

The Canada goose breeds across Canada and the northern United States, with a large population around the Great Lakes. It lives year-round in the southern part of its breeding range, including the northern half of the U.S. East Coast and the Pacific Coast. From California to South Carolina and into northern Mexico, it is mainly a winter visitor from farther north.

It is usually found on or near fresh water, but also uses brackish marshes, estuaries and lagoons. It has adapted extremely well to people. Golf courses, parks, beaches, sports fields and planned communities provide safe water next to grass, with few predators. Partly because migratory subspecies interbred with the introduced non-migratory giant subspecies, many urban Canada geese now stay all year. Resident flocks live along the Pacific coast from British Columbia to San Francisco Bay and on the Atlantic coast, and some have settled as far south as Florida.

The species has also spread far beyond North America. Wild birds reach northern Europe naturally, as well as Kamchatka and eastern China. People introduced it to France in the early 17th century, to Britain in the late 17th century, and later to Scandinavia and New Zealand. Britain's population grew from a few thousand in 1953 to an estimated 165,000 wintering birds in 2017.

Canada goose vs cackling goose

Until 2004 the cackling goose was treated as part of the Canada goose. The American Ornithologists' Union then split it into its own species, Branta hutchinsii, and the two still cause confusion where small Canada geese mix with large cackling geese.

Conservation status

The Canada goose is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. That wasn't always a given. Overhunting and habitat loss in the late 19th and early 20th centuries caused a serious decline, and the giant Canada goose was believed extinct in the 1950s until a small flock was found wintering in Rochester, Minnesota, in 1962. Restoration programs followed; by the end of 1981, more than 6,000 giant Canada geese had been released at 83 sites in North Dakota alone.

Today the problem is often the opposite. The North American population was estimated at 4 to 5 million birds in 2000, and non-migratory flocks are frequently treated as pests because of their droppings, crop damage, noise and aggression. In the United States the Canada goose is the second most damaging bird in aircraft strikes, after the turkey vulture, and geese forced US Airways Flight 1549 to ditch in the Hudson River in 2009.

The species is protected outside hunting seasons by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in the United States and the Migratory Birds Convention Act in Canada.