Canada Goose

How to identify

Field marks

1. Head and neck black, with white patches on both cheeks
2. Scapulars and back gray-brown; wing coverts have pale brown feather edges
3. Breast and belly whitish, grading into the upperparts
4. Uppertail-coverts white, tail feathers black

Male, female and young

Sexes identical in shape and color; female slightly lighter in weight.

Voice

Male gives a “honk”; female gives a shorter, higher “hrink”; birds usually give a high-pitched hiss first when excited or defending territory.

Similar species

Cackling Goose

Most subspecies of Cackling Goose are much smaller, with shorter necks and smaller bills.

Barnacle Goose

Barnacle Goose has a black breast and a grayish rather than brownish body.

Where and when it's recorded

Busiest months: May · Most records: United States, Canada, United Kingdom

Canada Goose has been recorded at 1,418 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 54 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary, Lincoln Park, ChicagoUnited States38,979 records
2. Parker River NWRUnited States33,868 records
3. Prospect ParkUnited States31,552 records

Countries and regions with the most records

United StatesCanadaUnited KingdomNew ZealandGermanySwedenFinlandBelgium

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The Canada goose (Branta canadensis) is a large species of goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks, white under its chin, and a brown body. It is native to the Arctic and temperate regions of North America, and it is occasionally found during migration across the Atlantic in northern Europe. It has been introduced to France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Scandinavia, New Zealand, Japan, Chile, Argentina, and the Falkland Islands.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

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