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Branta canadensis
(Canada Goose)

Order: Anseriformes
Order Description: Swans, Geese, Ducks
Family: Anatidae
Family Description: Swans, Geese and Ducks

Physical Description:
Size: 22-45" (56-92 cm). The most common goose in North America. Adults have a black head, neck, and bill and white cheek patches. Body gray to brown. Lower belly, upper and lower tail coverts white. Tail and rump black. Great variation in size and neck length between populations. Similar Species- None in Idaho.

Song:
A deep, loud, musical Ha-Honk! Often made in flight with other Canada Geese.


Distribution: Breeds from northern Alaska, east to Labrador and Greenland, and south to southeastern Canada, California, Utah, and northern Arkansas. Winters from Alaska and southern Canada, south to Florida, Gulf Coast, and northern Mexico. In North America, many introduced non-migratory populations exist within and outside normal range. Habitat:
Found in various habitats near water, from temperate regions to tundra. During migration and in winter, found on coastal and freshwater marshes, lakes, rivers, and fields. In Idaho, occurs in variety of habitats, including lakes, reservoirs, rivers, farmlands, and city parks.

Diet:
Grazes on marsh grasses, sprouts of winter wheat in spring, and grains in fall. Eats clover, cattails, bulrushes, algae, pondweed, and other plants. Also eats mollusks and small crustaceans.

Ecology:
Highly social species. Builds nest on ground, usually near water. Feeds in shallows, marshes, and fields. Usually feeds in early morning and late afternoon. May be active day or night during migration. In one study, mean annual survival rate for Rocky Mountain birds banded on neating areas was 53% (immatures) and 64% (adults). Large

resident population exist in southern Idaho; during winter, northern migrants are present throughout state.

Populations through out state have been enhanced through artificial nest platforms. Species is sometimes considered an agricultural pest. A study initiated by the Idaho Dept. Fish & Game in southwestern Idaho in 1993 is estimating population size and trend and examing factors affecting mortality rates.

Reproduction:
Female incubates 2-11 eggs (usually 5-6), for 25-30 days. Nestlings are precocial. Young are tended by both adults, and remain with adults until next spring. Some individuals begin breeding at 2 yr, most by age 3. May nest early in Idaho to avoid high spring waters.

  • Canada goose Species account
    Canada goose Branta canadensis

  • Canada Goose master list
    Canada Goose Branta canadensis. Species Information: Life History Data. Identification Tips. Photograph. Song. Breeding Distribution Map (BBS Data)

  • Duck & Goosemasters Waterfowl Organization
    The Watchdog Organization for Waterfowlers' Rights " coined by Chris Tollefson U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service June 3, 1999. Duck & Goose Masters

  • Encyclopedia.com - Results for goose
    large, wild or domesticated swimming BIRD related to the DUCK and SWAN. Strictly speaking, the term goose applies to the female and gander to the

  • International Goose Research Group (www.goose.org)
    International Goose Research Group - a series of pages devoted to ongoing research & management initiatives concerning various species of geese

  • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service , Office of Migratory Bird Management Home Page,
    This document provides an overview of the role and responsibilities of the Office of Migratory Bird Management within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

  • Western Wings Shooter
    > A great Public Service site put up by a hunter to help other hunters. Their primary goal is to promote conservation, safety, and of course a successful trip into the field for all of us out west.

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    Canada Goose

    The appeal of the Canada Goose Branta canadensis is legendary. The spectacle of the birds migrating in long, honking, irregular "V" formations across spring or autumn skies is always thrilling. They are one of the most dramatic portents of the change of seasons in Canada.

    Few species of North American birds are so widely distributed over the continent, comprise so many populations or races, and provide so much opportunity to explore the mysteries of bird biology.

    Varieties and distribution

    Many people can recognize a Canada Goose by its characteristic black head and crown, long black neck, and whitish cheek patches. However, there are probably more than 40 subpopulations, so a Canada Goose in one region may be quite a different bird from a Canada Goose in another.

    Members of these groups range in size from the largest of all geese, the deep-voiced honkers, to the smallest, with high-pitched cackling voices. The weights of the various races range from 1.1 to 8 kg and their wingspreads from about 90 cm to 2 m. Their underparts vary in colour from light pearl-grey to chestnut, and even blackish brown. Variations in body proportions, particularly the relative length of the neck, the body shape, and the body stance, further distinguish the different races. In general, the larger the size of the bird, the longer the neck and the more elongated the body; the smaller races have very short necks and compact, almost blocky bodies. However, all the races have whitish cheek patches and a black head, crown, and neck.

    The breeding range of the Canada Goose extends in Canada from the Yukon east to Newfoundland, and from southern Victoria Island and southern Baffin Island to the U.S.-Canada border in the west and Ontario and Quebec in the east. They are not usually seen in summer in the three Maritime provinces. Increasing numbers of Canada Geese winter in British Columbia and the Atlantic provinces, but the great majority travel farther south to the United States, or even to northeastern Mexico.

    This vast range is highly fragmented, each race preferring its own special habitat. The breeding ranges of various races are separated by well-defined natural barriers - high mountainous country, glaciers, deserts, or heavily wooded and rocky country - unsuitable for nesting geese. The winter ranges are harder to distinguish, especially as they are continually changing.

    Relation of Size to Distribution
    The distribution, size, and life cycle of these races vary according to the climate of their breeding grounds. For example, the Giant Canada Goose - the race of the Great Plains and the Mississippi Valley - requires 28-30 days for incubation, 70-80 days for rearing of young, and 40 days for the adults to moult and replace their flight feathers. The smallest race, the Cackling Canada Goose, requires only about 25, 42, and 24 days for the same stages. A goose breeding in the far north must complete nesting, rearing of young, and moulting in the comparatively short time between spring melt and winter freeze-up. Consequently, there is a natural selection for smaller forms with shorter breeding and moulting periods as the climate of the breeding area becomes more severe.

    The Giant Canada Goose, the subspecies that breeds farthest south, migrates the shortest distance. Many more northerly populations winter on the central portions of the Great Plains as long as spring-fed streams and food are available. Some populations of the smallest races that nest in the eastern and central Canadian Arctic travel all the way to the southern United States and northeastern Mexico to spend the winter. Many other bird species share this pattern of "leap frog" migration; no others exhibit such striking differences in body size and colouring.

    The habits of the Canada Goose can be illustrated by describing the "honker" that nests in the Hudson Bay region and winters in the Mississippi Valley.

    Spring migration
    The vast muskeg region of northern Ontario bordering the west coast of James Bay and the south coast of Hudson Bay is the magnet that draws the honkers northward each spring to nest. These geese reach their breeding grounds in late April, several weeks before the break-up of the major rivers. At that time there may still be a considerable depth of snow in the bush.

    While waiting for the snow and ice to clear from the interior muskeg where they will nest, the early arriving geese fly back and forth between open spots along the rivers. They feed in snow-free areas on sedges and berries remaining from the previous autumn.

    Canada Geese are hardy birds. Having put on a layer of fat during the early stages of migration they are easily able to sit out extended periods of severe weather. Even so, spring in the north is often capricious; late blizzards may force the advance flocks to retreat southward several times before they finally settle at their breeding grounds.

    Breeding habitat
    The great muskeg, the goose's breeding grounds, is a country nearly impassable to humans on foot. Geographers call it the Hudson Bay lowlands. Largely a waterlogged plain, the great muskeg is 325,000 kmē in extent and lies only a little above sea level. Its surface varies from scattered stands of stunted spruce and tamarack to large bogs and pothole lakes. Because floating mats of sedges and grasses cover much of the water area its appearance is often deceptive, and a Cree travelling the muskeg must step carefully to avoid a sudden plunge hip deep in cold water. Not all of this lonely muskeg land of the north is attractive to pairs of nesting geese. They prefer close groups of pothole lakes with one or more small islands.

    Most nest sites are located on island or islets, often close to woody vegetation and usually very close to the water. In some areas nests may be sited on waterlogged sedge-grass muskeg plains at a considerable distance from any sizeable pond or lake.

    Nesting
    When northern geese arrive on the nesting grounds in early spring, little food is available. Canada Geese may feed very little, and most of the nutrients used to form a clutch of eggs are carried to the nesting grounds as body components of the female. Usually five to seven eggs are laid, with older birds producing more eggs than birds nesting for the first time.

    The female incubates the eggs for 28 days while the male stands guard nearby. In the muskeg of northern Ontario, the male is sometimes several hundred metres from the nest. During the nesting period the female leaves the nest only briefly each day to feed.

    Nesting success is influenced by weather conditions at the start of laying and at the time of hatching. It may also be affected by variations in behaviour related to the density of the population. Where there are many geese a smaller proportion will breed successfully.

    Late summer and autumn migration
    Soon after the young have hatched, the families leave the nesting area, often walking surprisingly long distances in a few days. The adults become flightless for three to four weeks while they moult and regrow their flightfeathers. Those in the far interior of the muskeg wander from lake to lake, feeding on grasses and sedges as they cross the intervening stretches of floating sedge mats. If the geese have nested near the sea coast, they often descend the rivers to more favourable coastal marsh and tundra feeding areas. When rapids are encountered, the birds travel overland to the next stretch of calm water.

    A pair with its young of the year are an almost inseparable troupe, acting in unison. Usually the female leads the way, followed by the young, with the gander bringing up the rear. When another goose family ventures too close, both the parents and young assume threatening postures and make a lot of noise. The victor of such confrontations can be predicted with considerable certainty. In encounters between two families, the psychology of strength in numbers seems to be decisive - not the apparent size or weight of the adult antagonists. Large families almost always defeat small families, which in turn defeat pairs without young. Most encounters are settled without physical contact, and prolonged fights are rare.

    By early August the birds are ready to take to the air as a family unit. Some families remain inland, while others fly to the shores of Hudson and James bays, where they feed on berries and put on a layer of fat before their southward migration. There they are joined by tens of thousands of snow geese that have nested in the Arctic.

    Some of the Canada Geese linger on the shores of Hudson and James bays until early October. Then suddenly in a few days they are gone. Those that have flocked along James Bay follow the coastline south. Theinland geese tend to follow the north- and south-flowing rivers. A few days' flight returns them to their autumn and winter quarters.

    Research and management
    Banding - placing a numbered aluminum band around the leg of a bird - is one of the important tools of waterfowl research. Band returns from hunters who have shot banded waterfowl indicate that the migrations of geese, unlike those of ducks, follow restricted routes which return them to the same wintering and breeding grounds each year. Consequently, if a local population of geese is severely depleted, an influx of birds from other areas cannot be counted on to rebuild the local population, without at the same time destroying its distinctiveness.

    The Canada Goose populations that nest more or less continuously inland from the coasts of Hudson and James bays, and from Churchill in the northwest to the Ungava Peninsula at the northeast end of Hudson Bay, belong to four different flyway populations, which winter all the way from coastal Virginia and North Carolina, through the southern states, west to Illinois and north-central Missouri.

    In a world where many species are threatened by human activities, Canada Geese are a welcome exception, though the distinctive identities, and even the existence, of some small island populations are far from assured. The species as a whole has flourished in the last 30 years. In 1950 there were perhaps 1 million Canada Geese; in 1965, 1.5 million. Now there are as many as that in eastern Canada alone, and the continental population, before hunting begins in September, probably exceeds 5 million.

    Canada Geese owe their success partly to management programs, especially the U.S. federal and state refuge systems, to careful regulation of hunting, and to re-introductions into the southern parts of their former breeding range, from Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario west to southern Alberta. They have probably benefited even more from modern agricultural techniques, with large fields, heavy fertilizer use, the introduction of hardy and high-yielding strains of grass, corn, and cereals, and the spillage associated with mechanical harvesting. What for many other birds has been a disaster has been for geese a great opportunity to flourish and expand, which they have seized very effectively.

    Superabundance of Canada Geese has reached the point of causing problems in urban areas. The birds are well adapted to thrive under the close protection and feeding opportunities offered by living in parks, near suburban wetlands, and on lawns or golf courses. Because no hunting takes place in these areas, there are few natural factors working to limit their population growth and disperse the birds. Populations of urban Canada Geese and Mallards are still expanding and will continue to create problems of overabundance in the next decade.

    The story of the Canada Goose in this century has highlighted the successes and dilemmas of North American waterfowl management. It has demonstrated that wildlife can be effectively managed for all users, including subsistence hunters, recreational hunters, observers, photographers, and those who simply appreciate the wild call that heralds the changing seasons. Although challenges lie ahead, the Canada Goose is one of the great success stories of wildlife management today.

    Our Motto
    "Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not."
    Thomas Jefferson

    Nascar Directory
    Nascar is the most popular and exciting car racing sport in the world.


    Nacar is the essence of stock Car Racing. Nascar tracks and races are all approved and conducted to the highest standards. It offers the rare opportunity to enjoy the exciting sport of stock car racing that is safe and regulated so there is minimal danger and maximum emphasis on skill. Click on the picture to learn more.


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Aleutian Canada Goose