Jean Irons kindly forwarded my query concerning the Id of the Central Park goose to goose expert Ken Abraham. His opinion is that it is a Cackling Goose (B. hutchinsii). Details below:
Peter Post Begin forwarded message: > From: jeani...@sympatico.ca > Date: February 15, 2016 11:09:48 AM EST > To: birdw...@listserv.ksu.edu > Subject: Re: [BIRDWG01] goose ID > Reply-To: jeani...@sympatico.ca > > Hi Peter, > > > > We asked goose expert Ken Abraham to comment. Please see > below. > > > > “It’s difficult to tell what this bird is, other than > that it is smaller white-cheeked goose than the associated birds > (which are > likely large Canada Geese of the local breeding population). The > bill is the > obvious character trait that doesn’t fit the birder’s conventional > wisdom that > a cackling goose must have a short, stubby, triangular bill. This > is not the > case. Photographs of breeding geese from Southampton Island and > western Hudson > Bay coast of Nunavut deemed to be B. hutchinsii show a variety of > bill shapes, > including ones that look like the bird in this observation. There > is also a > fairly large variation in B. hutchinsii body size from the Nunavut- > Manitoba > border to Baffin Island (larger in the > south approaching the low end of the B. c. interior size range). > > > > My usual caveat about identification of any eastern > white-cheeked goose as a Lesser Canada Goose B. c. parvipes is that > such a bird > would be exceedingly exceedingly rare based on all known band > recoveries from > the restricted breeding range of B. c. parvipes > as it understood since the revision of thinking about species and > subspecies in the 2004 A.O.U. split. Current thinking is that B. c. > parvipes is > restricted to Alaska, and that the small white cheeked geese across > the > Canadian arctic from Yukon to Nunavut are B. > hutchinsii. The observer of this bird may not be aware of this (and > frankly most people aren’t because some of the information isn’t > published or > widely available). > > > > Thus, as a conservative thinker on this issue of small > white-cheeked geese, I would call this bird a B. hutchinsii variant.” > > > > Ron Pittaway and Jean Iron > > Toronto ON > > >> Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2016 11:28:03 -0500 >> From: pwp...@nyc.rr.com >> Subject: [BIRDWG01] goose ID >> To: birdw...@listserv.ksu.edu >> >> I photographed this goose, yesterday, 13 February, on the Central >> Park Reservoir, New York City. I would appreciate comments >> concerning ID. I'm leaning toward B. canadensis parvipes. Thanks. >> >> Photos can be found here: >> http://www.ardithbondi.com/page127.html >> >> Peter Post >> New York City, NY >> >> Archives: http://listserv.ksu.edu/archives/birdwg01.html > > Archives: http://listserv.ksu.edu/archives/birdwg01.html -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
