RE: Cackling Goose with neck ring

["J. Harry Krueger" <hkrueger at cableone dot net>]

Neck rings are NOT a reliable guide to subspecies identification of
white-cheeked geese.  ALL of the Cackling Goose races can have neck rings to
varying extents.  Head shape in relation to bill size and shape is much more
telling.  
BTW, the blackish line area below the white neck ring on the Utah bird is
very characteristic of Branta hutchinsii leucopareia (the "Aleutian"
Cackling Goose) AND the bill and head shape is good for that race also.

Harry Krueger
Boise 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-birdtalk@utahbirds.org [mailto:owner-birdtalk@utahbirds.org] On
Behalf Of Utah Birds
Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2005 8:29 PM
To: birdtalk@utahbirds.org
Subject: Cackling Goose with neck ring


Jim brings up a good question.

Mark Stackhouse wrote a great article on the Canada Goose Split.  Here's a
link to his article.  (The link to a Sibley article at the top is also very
helpful):

http://utahbirds.org/RecCom/NewGoose.htm

It looks like three of the goose subspecies on p.75 of the Big Sibley's are
now part of the new Cackling Goose species, the Aleutian, Cackling and
Richardson's.  It's interesting (and maybe confusing) to look at the table
to see which ones have neck rings.

Milt Moody





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