ML488078331
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Unknown age, Unknown sex - 2
Observation details
Two initially spotted by Russ Naylor, seven small Canada-type geese in total seen together among 500 +/- Canada Geese. Noticeably smaller geese with shorter necks, short stubby bills, easily compared to adjacent Canadas. Per eBird reviewer "Sorting out Cackling and Canada is complicated because no Cacklings breed in or near CT, so we have no idea where ones we see here are coming from. The first thing to bear in mind is that size alone is not sufficient to separate the two species. The size range of Canada Geese is very wide, and at the small end for Canada, birds known as "Lesser" Canada Geese can be essentially as small as Cackling. (And they also breed in high Arctic areas where they are not studied well). The key features separating the Cackling Geese (there are several subspecies) usually seen in our area are very stubby bills, blocky heads, darker breasts, often a good neck collar and in good light a mantle (back and folded wings) that looks frostier than nearby Canadas. A couple birds in the photos seem good, but there's a lot of variation among the smaller birds in this big group. A good thing to look for on smaller birds is whether the bill is truly stubby or just small because the bird itself is small and proportionally it doesn't look different from a Canada bill." Photos
Additional species
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
- Lens
- EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM +1.4x III
- ISO
- 1000
- Focal length
- 560 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/8.0
- Shutter speed
- 1/640 sec
- Dimensions
- 1207 pixels x 805 pixels
- Original file size
- 1.55 MB