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Barnacle / Canada goose hybrid [Netherlands] (1 Viewer)

annelikesbirds

Active member
Hi there!

I was hoping you could help me identify the following geese. I presume they're Barnacle / Canada goose hybrids, though the last one looks like it's a regular Canada goose. Still, I know nothing about hybridisation at all, so I'd be happy to learn how to recognise and correctly identify them.

Thank you!
 

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Attached is a hybrid from near us a few years back, and the parents though the Canada Goose in this case is a different race to your bird.

Stephen
 

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Please also note that such hybrids canada x barnacle and kackling x barnacle are fertile and can backcross with either parent species or between themselves.
 
I think the last bird has very strange body proportions and breast coloration for Canada Goose. If all birds were in one place and might be related, it could be a back-cross, too.
 
They were indeed all in one place - lots of different sizes and colourations, quite the spectacle (and a bit confusing for a novice birder!)
Thank you all for your explanations :)
 
I think the last bird has very strange body proportions and breast coloration for Canada Goose. If all birds were in one place and might be related, it could be a back-cross, too.

Hi Jurek can you explain a little. Breast coloration and body proportions are both very variable in Canada Geese.
 
The front bird in Anne's last photo looks like a pretty normal Canada to me, but the bird in Stephen Dunstan's last photo does look weird with its total lack of distinction between breast and flank, general greyish cast and very short neck. Definitely not a typical "Atlantic" Canada as found feral in Europe - could be a backcrossed Barnacle hybrid (3/4 or more Canada), but with Stephen saying the Canadas there are a "different race" I'm wondering about a Cackling or one of the western forms. The back bird in his first photo, while warmer in colour, certainly looks small, stubby-billed and dark-breasted.
 
The front bird in Anne's last photo looks like a pretty normal Canada to me, but the bird in Stephen Dunstan's last photo does look weird with its total lack of distinction between breast and flank, general greyish cast and very short neck. Definitely not a typical "Atlantic" Canada as found feral in Europe - could be a backcrossed Barnacle hybrid (3/4 or more Canada), but with Stephen saying the Canadas there are a "different race" I'm wondering about a Cackling or one of the western forms. The back bird in his first photo, while warmer in colour, certainly looks small, stubby-billed and dark-breasted.

Thanks for this, I assumed Jurek meant Anne's photos not mine. I may not have been clear but the bird in the second picture I posted is assumed to be one of the chicks in the original photo, i.e. a Barnacle x minima Canada cross. We can't prove that, but it turned up only a few miles away during the following winter.

Stephen
 
Interesting - I would have assumed that an F1 Barnacle x Cackling would have had some white on the forehead, but a quick browse for online photos shows that seemingly not all do.

Where are there free-roaming minima in Lancashire?
 
Interesting - I would have assumed that an F1 Barnacle x Cackling would have had some white on the forehead, but a quick browse for online photos shows that seemingly not all do.

Where are there free-roaming minima in Lancashire?

There was just this one, probably why it paired with the Barney, though a few years later one appeared with the Pinkfeet briefly.
 
Makes sense, I have heard that DNA studies show that Cackling Goose (including minima) is actually more closely related to Barnacle than to the large races of Canada (one of the reasons it has been split into a separate species, though I believe there is still some ambiguity over larger races of Cackling and smaller races of Canada which interbreed with each other).
 
Concerning minima x barnacle geese, I know of captive birds of this cross that have white on the forehead, but similar body plumage to the one Stephen posted.
Furthermore there have been birds in the wild in England; the Netherlands and Scandinavia which looked similar to Stephens photo, without white forehead .

I think these birds may be similar (however there are probably other hutchinsii races also involved, and some birds may be backcrosses or later generation hybrids ):
These for example maxy not be first generation:
https://waarneming.nl/foto/view/15332221
https://waarneming.nl/foto/view/10079014

while this seems to be also an F1 (first generation hybrid):
http://radioactiverobins.com/archiv...ybrid 04022009 Abbenbroek,The Netherlands.jpg

Generally, There are all kinds of combinations of Canada/cackling /barnacle in Europe, and we should closely watch the developments, as such crosses are fertile . I think we can not exclude tit will affect the barnacle goose population in the future:
https://waarneming.nl/foto/view/10429428
https://waarneming.nl/foto/view/13059477
https://waarneming.nl/foto/view/10405688
https://waarneming.nl/foto/view/9181252
https://waarneming.nl/foto/view/2646674
https://waarneming.nl/foto/view/7503205
https://waarneming.nl/foto/view/8094726
https://waarneming.nl/foto/view/11658456
https://waarneming.nl/foto/view/11961409
https://waarneming.nl/foto/view/2725
https://waarneming.nl/foto/view/1230873
https://waarneming.nl/foto/view/3074753


Furthermore Hawaiian goose as a member of this group can also hybridize with the others :

https://waarneming.nl/waarneming/view/47269236
 
Great stuff Joern! Especially the pair of Barnacle and F1 hybrid with presumably backcrossed goslings and the flock with seemingly 8-10 hybrids in it - I agree that long-term introgression of Cackling genes into Barnacle populations could easily result from this.

The Hawaiian Goose hybrid is fascinating as well - it's bigger and more Canada-like in structure than might be expected, but I have heard (possibly disputed?) claims that in DNA terms the Hawaiian Goose is so close to Canada that following a strictly cladistic taxonomy it ought to be considered a subspecies of Canada, despite the very obvious morphological, behavioural, etc differences. A similar sort of situation to grizzly/brown bears and polar bears...
 
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