Family:
The cackling goose is a small, compact goose with a short neck, long wings, short legs, and a steep forehead. It has brown upperparts and underparts with white under the darker tail. The head and neck are black with a distinctive white patch on the cheek. Some individuals have a thin white necklace. The short bill is black. The brown colouration on the body can vary from pale to dark brown among the subspecies of which there are at least 5.
The cackling goose was considered a subspecies of the Canada goose until 2004 when the American Ornithologists’ Unions made it a separate species. The main differences are that the cackling goose tends to be smaller and more delicate, the bill is stubbier, and the head is squarer, and their calls are higher pitched than those of the Canada goose.
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Cackling geese eat mainly plant matter such as roots, tubers, shoots, and leaves, as well as cultivated grains particularly during migration. They will also eat insects, molluscs, and crustaceans.
They forage mostly on land although will feed in water, sometimes tipping upside down like a dabbling duck.
Cackling geese are found across North America. It breeds in northern Canada and Alaska along ponds and streams in the tundra as well as marshes, meadows, and estuaries. It migrates and winters in western Canada and northern Mexico.
