The Great Black-necked Canada Goose
The Great Black-necked Canada Goose
The Greater Black-necked Goose with its white chinstrap is a familiar and widespread bird in fields and parks. Thousands of 'honkies' migrate north and south each year, filling the sky with tall V-shaped formations. But as grasslands reproduce, more and more of these grassland-adapted birds remain year-round in urban and suburban areas, where some people consider them pests.
Backyard Tips
Mowing and maintaining lawns at the water's edge, or maintaining very large lawns anywhere near water are open invitations to Canada Geese. Plastic netting placed on the lawn usually prevents them from walking on the lawn.
Consider creating a nesting platform to attract a breeding pair. Be sure to prepare it before the breeding season. Plans for building a suitably sized nesting structure can be found on the All About Birdhouses website.
important events
At least 11 subspecies of Canada geese have been identified, although only a few are distinctive. In general, the geese get smaller as you move north and darker as you move west. The four smaller forms are now a variant: Cackling Goose.
Some migratory groups of Canada Geese no longer head south in winter as they used to. This northward shift in range has been attributed to changes in agricultural practices that make grain waste more available in autumn and winter, as well as changes in fishing pressure and weather patterns.
Canada geese in most populations make annual northward migrations after breeding. Non-breeding geese, or those that have lost their nests early in the breeding season, may move several kilometres to over 1,500 kilometres north. There they take advantage of vegetation in an earlier state of growth to feed on their feathers. Even members of the "resident" population, which do not migrate south in winter, will move north in late summer to moult.
The "giant" Canadian goose, Branta canadensis maxima, was bred from central Manitoba to Kentucky, but almost disappeared by the early 1900s. Programs to restore the subspecies to its original range have been so successful in many places that the geese have become a nuisance in many urban and suburban areas.
In a pattern that biologists call "identical mating", birds of both sexes tend to choose partners of the same size.
The oldest known wild Canada Goose was a female, 33 years old and at least 3 months old when she was shot in Ontario in 2001. She was captured in Ohio in 1969.