Cackling Goose
Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline, Richmond, California, USA
November 2020
Member of the Ducks, Geese, and Swans Family
§A Plump of Geese§
~True Bird Fact~ So, where to begin? Probably, we should address that most people with cursory bird knowledge would look at this bird and say "that's a Canada Goose". Yes, this bird is nearly indistinguishable from that familiar and frequently villainized waterfowl. Now this is nothing new for bird identification- I could rattle off a dozen pairs of birds that are nearly indistinguishable from one another to the untrained eye. However, in this case, it is only since relatively recently that this bird has been considered to be a different species from the Canada Goose. The primary difference is really just the size. Check out the picture below, which has a Canada Goose or two in it as well. The largest sub-species of Canada Goose is 4 times as large as the smallest sub-species of Cackling Goose. Incredible as this may seem, up until 2004 this bird was just considered to be "a small Canada Goose" basically.
After the split was made, one ornithologist, Harold C. Hanson (can't quite explain it, but this is the most Ornithologist name you can have) suggested that the Canada Goose be further divided into 6 species and 200 sub-species. It's hard to tell to me, as an amateur, if this proposition was sincere or more of a "fuck it, they're all different species now" from Harold. In terms of the other ways to distinguish whether you have a Canada Goose or a Cackling Goose, if you were inclined to try to do so, there's something about the neck ring being thinner, but that's not even always visible. When you google search for Cackling Goose, the second result is an article about how to tell them apart from Canada Geese, which should tell you something about the processes. I suggest just finding them in a mixed flock, like I've done.
"Don't Talk to Me or My Son Ever Again"
And finally, it's time to return to probably my actual favorite segment we do here on the blog- Bird Reviews from BackyardChickens.com!
These reviews were pulled from a forum thread rather than an official review page, because these are a non-domesticated species of bird.
"there are very few of us that own these geese"
"I have Cackleing geese .... LOVE THEM!!!" ... "They free range every day and get along with everything." ... "they are not bonded to me, but are not terribly wild either."
"She does not know she's a goose. She thinks she's a dog. She has stayed around here, even though she can fly, likes her kiddie pool, doesn't like to share with other geese, but if you bark at her she comes running and honking."
"Cackling geese are better and smaller and easier to take care don't get them pinned" [as compared to Canada Geese]
