cackling and canada geese (1 Viewer)

[Jacana]

i've read that the canada goose has split into the two species, my question is, how do you distinguish the two? what should i look for, and also which species is found in britian? thanks.

 

[Rico Kuehn]

Cackling is a lil bit smaller, does have a very short bill and its frequency of wingbeats is higher. Furthermore, there're several distinctions in plumage...
It is hard to say which species occur in Britain - several subspecies were reported, but the most common seems to be canadensis.
But I'm not an expert in geese so I leave this thread to the experts

regards, Rico

 

[alcedo.atthis]

"i've read that the canada goose has split into the two species, my question is, how do you distinguish the two? what should i look for, and also which species is found in britian? thanks."



At least 11 identifiable sub-species. Depending what you read, such as some Canadian papers, over 40 sub-species are now distinguishable, most are variants of some of the primary 11, but habitat and feeding of long staying flocks has produced notifiable differences in plumage and stature.

As for species seen in the U.K. loads of discussions due to the high levels of sub-species interbreeding. One bird found by myself, (North East Scotland) had been rung in Maryland (USA) earlier on the same year. Certain claims were made that it was Parvipes, but this has not been officially accepted, as small variances in it's plumage, and the inability from the actual ringers to confirm sub-species has led to the official decision that the sub-species is not identified.



Regards



Malky

 

[njlarsen]

There has been at least two previous threads on this topic, search for "Cackling" in this forum

HTH
Niels