Snow Goose paired with Canada Goose? (5 Viewers)

My husband and I live in NY state near Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. We visited today and had quite the experience. It took us a while to realize we were watching an immature Bald Eagle hunting for fish in the waters but that is not why I am on the internet searching for information.

We are not really birders so I hope by posting on this forum someone will be able to help us with this question. Ok, here it is...

We saw two pairs of geese at the edge of the waters only a few feet from our car. The strange thing about both pairs is that one was a Snow Goose and one was a Canada Goose. Now from what I understand by the information I was able to gather on the internet is that these two species do not really like to mingle with each other although it has not been uncommon for people to see one Snow Goose in a flock of Canada Geese.

With the first pair we saw, the Snow Goose had an injured wing. We took pictures so you guys can see what we saw. Now these geese were definately paired cuz' they were drinking together, swimming together and were a long way away from any other geese.

We are very confused, do Snow Geese mate with Canada Geese?

Hi, Eyes! I see this is your first post, so a warm welcome to you from all of on staff here at BirdForum!

Afraid I can't answer your question about hybridizing between these two species, but I'm sure someone will be along shortly who can. :t: Nice photos, BTW.

I don't know how common it is, but it does happen. I have seen hybrids of the two species, as well as what I was pretty sure was a mix between a canada and a white fronted goose. I spotted these a few years back in a city park in St. Louis, during the fall migration.

Hi Eyes,
this does happen occasionally with different species of geese (but it is a relatively rare event). One can speculate about the reasons (e.g. one partner being imprinted on the wrong species); However, generally goose pairs stay together for a long time, ideally until one partner dies (though "divorce" can occur, one important reason issaid to be being unsuccessfull in rearing young for several times). Pairs formed by different species are not different in that respect.

Thank you for the welcome.

Wow, it is interesting that these two species do pair up and we saw something rather rare.

I guess Montezuma is the place to see some rare things though. We will visit often.

Eyes said:

Thank you for the welcome.

Wow, it is interesting that these two species do pair up and we saw something rather rare.

I guess Montezuma is the place to see some rare things though. We will visit often.

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I don't know much about geese but I'll attach some photos of some Snow Geese with gray coloring and one that just looks a little odd. Does anyone think these Geese pictured could be from the Snow Goose and a Canadian Goose breeding? These pics are from the lake nearby where I work. It's also possible they are young and as a result have their young plumage still. If you read my text below these pictures will make more sense.

Where I work there is a lake with the same Geese your talking about. I always used to see about 12 to 15 Canadian Geese graze around the building I work at. There was always one single Snow Goose that would tag along with the Canadian Geese. I always found it a little odd and wondered how that relationship started. The mother Snow Goose could have been hit by a car which happens there at times. The fledgling may have been taken care of by a Canadian Goose and grew up as part of their social group.

Having a Snow Goose in your group may help. They seem like tough geese.

There is a nice nature trail on the companies property and at the breeding time of the year you would see occupied Canadian Geese nests all over the place. The Geese would hiss at you when you walk buy. They sounded like snakes. They did this little thing with their tongue like a moving snake as well. Pretty funny to see.

One day I was on the trail sitting on a picnic table and I noticed a single goose way out in the lake. It was a small lake as far as lakes are concerned but big enough. At some point I noticed he was comming to me. It took him as I remember 5 or 10 minutes for him to reach me. He came right up to me and honked at me every now and then. I wish I had something to feed him but I didn't. It was a Brown Chineese Goose I found out later.

I have more photo's of these geese if anyone would like to see them.

They look a bit like farmyard greylags due to the lack of black wingtips sitting on top of the tail when resting and the grey extendig up onto the head, which rules out the 'blue goose' morph.
At least I think so - I'd ask someone else...

I just looked up juvenile Snow Geese and they will have the same gray color that's on an adult under their wings covering the top of their juvenile wings. I'm guessing the 2 photos of the mostly white Snow Goose is the final stage of loosing juvenile plumage.

Still he doesn't look right somehow. Maybe going through a molt like that took allot out of him and he's feeling sick on the picture.

I could tell my pet budgie felt pretty bad for a few days in all his molts he had over the years. He must have gone through 12 or 13 molts total (2 each year). Birds usually don't show they are feeling sick until things get very bad. It's because of the pecking order they hide it. They would be targeted and loose their status when they need it the most to eat, drink and recover without being picked on.

My budgie tried to hide it but still wanted out of the cage when I came home, he would play with me and sit with me. I knew he was not feeling well because he was not singing and was not as vocal when out playing. Then in a few days he was back to normal once the worse part of the molt was over. He would then continue to molt for 2 to 3 weeks as I remember but he felt good after the few bad days.

I just wish there were digital camera's back then to get some nice photos of him. I do have an old video tape of me playing with him so I thankful for that. I pulled my avatar from the VHS video tape. Thats him sitting on my bed cover. In reality he was there for a second or two. Then running around playing chase my hand on the bed.

colonelboris said:

They look a bit like farmyard greylags due to the lack of black wingtips sitting on top of the tail when resting and the grey extendig up onto the head, which rules out the 'blue goose' morph.
At least I think so - I'd ask someone else...

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I didn't even think to look under the mature adult's wings. I'll take a look.

YellowBudgie said:

I didn't even think to look under the mature adult's wings. I'll take a look.

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Here's a relatively clear photo of what people call a white goose. I'm not sure what the real name is. On the other photo there is a goose looking like it was mad at a passing car. I want to ID that goose. It may be a female Brown Chinese Goose. I know the females don't have the bulbous structure on their head like the males do.

Hi yellowbudgie,
I am sorry to say none of your birds is a Snow goose or snow-goose canada -goose hybrid. all of them are domestic geese = farmyard geese (exept for the canada geese , certainly). There are some that look like farmyard geese domesticated from the eurasian Greylag goose and others , those white omes with the knob at the base of the bill, are white forms of the domestic chinese geese originally from east asia (or perhaps hybrids of those with white domestic greylags. look at the bulk and the sagging belly of these birds, a clear indication they are domestics. see the bodies of the canada geese in comparism which look much more slender and elegant. any wild goose species would show such a more elegant body. Furthermore , a snow goose shows a pinkish bill with a black grin patch, pinkish and black primaries , of which the tips should be visible even with folded wings.

Your birds are just somebodies farm birds running wild.

Jörn

The bird looking at passing cars for example is a typical farmyard goose, a domestic greylag, as much a true wild bird as the chicken on a farm.
However that one has the coloration of a wild greylag goose...but you see the sagging belly of a domestic goose...

I never thought about it but I assume they were domesticated to eat? If so do people eat domestic greylag much anymore?

Had one at Christmas - and very nice it was too.
Certainly beats turkey.
We also had goose eggs for breakfast the other day. The yolk is almost the size of a whole chicken's egg and much more tasty.

On the point of escaped farmyard greylags, there's a lot of them about in the UK. At Lochwinnoch, they had a pair (christened Charles and Camilla, as they arrived not long before the wedding) and even though some of the staff seemed to really hate them, a lot of general public seemed to think they were great.
I even did a painting of Charles for the reserve, but the less said about that episode the better as I'm still close to internally rupturing over the affair.

colonelboris said:

On the point of escaped farmyard greylags, there's a lot of them about in the UK. At Lochwinnoch, they had a pair (christened Charles and Camilla, as they arrived not long before the wedding) and even though some of the staff seemed to really hate them, a lot of general public seemed to think they were great.
I even did a painting of Charles for the reserve, but the less said about that episode the better as I'm still close to internally rupturing over the affair.

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Thats a really nice painting.

This doesn't apply to your situation since I'm sure you would have had a place for them to stay.

I think one reason people don't like large water birds like geese is because of their droppings. At my job there were canadian goose droppings everywhere. If you didn't watch were you were walking you had a really good chance of stepping in a fresh one. As anyone knows who is around a area where these geese frequent the are not your average droppings. They are pretty big droppings closer to small dog droppings.

People end up associating the dropping problem with the goose. I have to admit at times I wasn't thrilled with canadian geese because of the dropping issue. I never hated them or wished them any harm but when I would see the canadian geese the first thing I would think is dealing the land mine field of droppings.

I would try to remind myself not to think of the dropping issue but to actually look at them the bird. I find canadian geese very nice looking birds. It was always a fun time when they had their baby chicks. I would watch these little green tennis ball chicks that were so cute.

I think the pigeon gets the same bad publicity because they roost together and make a mess and it may be your roof they are roosting on. Their droppings can transfer a bunch of diseases to humans where they roost. If you were up on the roof and came in contact with the droppings.

I find them very nice looking birds as well.

They are the one bird we would rather not feed. I don't know what the chances are but we don't want them to get used to it here and stay on our roof during the day.

It's too bad because when they are around, my father would rather put up a feeder with a catch on the bottom so most of the food gets trapped and does not fall on the ground to attract other birds. The birds on the ground attract the more desirable birds to the feeder. I enjoy watching the crows, grackles, starlings and such as well.