Birder’s Notebook by Bob Andrini: 3 April Entry: While I was growing up, we saw different sizes of canada geese. About 15 years ago, the American Ornithological Union separated the 7 larger races into the canada goose species, and the 4 smaller races into cackling goose species.
One of our members, years ago, brought a Cackling Goose to one of our meetings that was about the size of a mallard. In the picture below you can see cackling geese with canada geese. Note the smaller body size of the cackling goose, and the smaller blunt bill.
Unlike the canada goose, almost all the cackling geese will migrate south for the winter and return north early in spring migration.
