Mystery Geese

[Steve Sanford]

Good morning, All~

My daughter Emily just sent me this avipuzzle. She lives in Germany. Since the photo was taken near San Francisco, I am presuming it was sent her by a friend; it was taken in late May.

My Tentative Conclusions Subject to Your Rigorous Peer Review: Although the photo is too unclear to reveal many of the critical traits, I will say the bird on the left - with its head back preening under its left wing - is a Canada Goose - one of the western subspecies with darker plumage than those seen along our Atlantic seaboard. And, the mostly white bird on the right is a leucistic (albinistic) form of the same species. The shape and proportions are wrong for Snow Goose - e.g., no black wing tips, long slender neck, delicate bill without (?) grinning patch, short legs (?) - a Branta and not a Chen or Anser. The occasional darker feathers and the pale bill color support the leucistic hypothesis.

Alternative Gunners Hypothesis: Just another "white bird" - lumped in with Whistlers, Butterball and Shellpeckers....

Your thoughts?

SJS

 

[Rick L]

i would guess a Canada as well

cannot tell if the eyes are pink - but white phases occur in other animals

white whitetail deer show up in a population near here

 

[george w]

one normal canada and one of the canadas with a melanin anomaly-my guess. There is a word to describe, but being senile, it is locked within the oatmeal of my brain. Perhaps it will surface sometime soon.

 

[TimJ]

Like you I'd say the dark one is a dark Canada or a Cackling Goose. Likely the later but can't tell for sure.

The other is harder but I'm one to go with the most likely option. I'd say its a farm goose(anser) x Canada. The head and neck does have a Branta look to it. The color looks pied, a very common coloring in farm geese. I've seen hybrids that look very much like a Canada in shape but are colored like farm geese. My uncle had a Canada x buff farm goose that turned out gorgeous. Looked just like a Canada all in shades of buff.

I'd be more apt to say the white goose was a pure Canada if it was an albino. While pied birds do happen naturally I just doubt any that involve geese or mallards. I know that makes me wrong every once in a while but I'm right a lot more often.

Tim

 

[Dani]

dunno but that sure is pretty landscape in that first picture

 

[sean kane]

The bird on the right looks like a Coscoroba swan. They are much smaller than a tundra and have a red bill. Never seen one that wasn't pure white but the neck looks more swan like than goose like.

 

[clinton andrus]

The goose on the left is for sure a small canadain you can she the check patch on the head just obove the back where it is preening its self.

The goose on the left im not sure of really because I killed a speck three seasons ago here in louisiana during a ice storm that looked almost identical to this bird, so I cant really give a answer to what kind it may be.

It does have a white bill patch if you look very close and if you look closer it has some kind of color strip coming from the eye.

 

[Kevin Layne]

As one of the few if not the only Californian on this site, I feel uniquely qualified to make this call. Not only was the bird in CA, but it was in the Bay Area. That's the land of freaks, fruitcakes, freaks, etc. That goose may have been nothing more than a speck trying to dress up like a snow goose to impress a canada goose.