More hybrid geese: various Canada x domestic types

Here are a few more probable Canada x Greylag/Domestic Goose hybrids, from various places around Greater Manchester...

(I'm not sure if such hybrids are particularly common in the Manchester area, or if i've just noticed them more since i've lived around here - the white one in the last post was the only hybrid goose i ever saw in 3 years in Birmingham, and these are all from the last 6 months. There do seem to be a lot more feral domestic (anser and/or cygnoides descended) geese around in Manchester though, whereas the few that i saw around Birmingham tended not to be on the same reservoirs/ponds/lakes/etc as the much-commoner-there Canadas.)





This one was at Etherow Country Park near Stockport. Notably, there were at least 3 distinct groups of geese on the reservoir it was on - Canadas, grey/brown domestic geese (most of which had some obvious Swan Goose ancestry, although they were probably mixed with Greylag over several generations), and some extremely large white domestic geese, which i believe were probably a "pure" domestic breed such as Embdens. (first pic below shows 2 of the Embdens, with a Swan Goose-type - which, for scale, is itself about the size of a typical Canada Goose, and the others 2 of the Swan Goose types...)




The hybrid seemed to be solitary, whether by choice or because it was rejected by the other groups of geese. (I'm still not actually certain this bird is part-Canada rather than just an unusual domestic Greylag x domestic Swan Goose cross, as its head and bill look pretty Greylag-like, but from discussions on Flickr and BirdForum, black tail feathers show Branta parentage, and Canada x domestic Swan Goose hybrids tend to have a lot of white on their heads/necks.)





This one, from Heaton Park, is similar but more obviously a Canada Goose hybrid. On the boating lake it was on there were families of both Canadas and wild-type Greylags with young goslings, and 2 "mixed" family groups that seemed to each consist of a pair of Canadas with goslings and a single Greylag with goslings of its own that had joined up with them - it wouldn't surprise me if the goslings in such mixed groups were likely to pair up with each other and produce hybrids in the future. There was also a large group of white/piebald domestic Greylags with somewhat older goslings. Note the pink legs and part orange, part pink bill.



This black-billed one from a boating lake in Stalybridge appears to be a Canada x domestic Swan Goose hybrid, according to the discussion in the Flickr "hybrid birds" photo-pool (see below).

In the "hybrid birds" pool on Flickr there are many more examples of Canada x dometic goose hybrids, which are very varied - these are subdivided into probable Canada x domestic Greylag, probable Canada x domestic Swan Goose, and probable Canada x domestic with both Greylag and Swan Goose ancestry, although i'm not sure how reliably distinguishable those categories actually are.

A few more good examples of Canada x Greylag/domestic goose hybrids can be seen here, here, here and here,.

More hybrid geese: white Canada x domestic, Birmingham

I first saw this goose in Cannon Hill Park in Birmingham in February 2008: as i was walking towards the lake near the Midlands Arts Centre, i saw a large male Mute Swan, wings puffed up in a huge threat posture, chase after and viciously attack an off-white goose, which then took off wildly honking, accompanied by a Canada Goose, and circled the lake several times calling loudly. I wonder whether the swan attacked that particular goose because of its colouring, which approximated that of a young Mute Swan at about the age when the parents would be driving them away from the next to live independently (mostly white, with some light greyish patches), or perhaps because it fell into some kind of swan version of the Uncanny Valley - just too similar too, yet too different from, a swan for the swan to feel disturbed or threatened by it in a way that it wasn't by the "normal" Canada geese...



After that incident, presumably the goose left Cannon Hill Park, but then in 2009, i saw the same bird at Swanshurst Park, a couple of miles away, accompanying a small group of Canada geese. While there were also resident swans at Swanshurst Park, they didn't seem bothered by the goose...






(while i'm not 100% sure this is the same bird, i believe it probably is: the difference in colour between the 2008 and 2009 photos is mostly due to the 2009 photos being taken with a better camera and less overexposed - the 2008 photo bleaches out the goose to look whiter than it is)

I wasn't sure at first whether this goose was actually a "half-Canada" or not - it was the same colour as lots of domestic geese of Greylag descent, but the pink (rather than orange) bill and legs, as well as the relatively Canada-like head and neck proportions (long, fairly thin neck, smallish head and much slimmer bill than most Greylag-types) led me to conclude that this individual must be a hybrid between a Canada and a white domestic goose.

Compare for example this very similarly coloured feral domestic Greylag-type (from Platt Fields Park in Manchester) - note the shorter, thicker neck, bigger head and much deeper, orange (not pink) bill:



Searching for online images, i also found these very similar white or mostly-white Canada/domestic hybrids:

Flickr 1
Flickr 2
Flickr 3
BirdForum 1
BirdForum 2
Harry Lehto
DV Info (the last 2 accompanied by "non-white" Canada/domestic hybrids that appear to have been their siblings)

showing that this isn't such a rare combination (although they are probably often mistaken for "ordinary" white domestic geese). One characteristic i've noticed about Canada x domestic goose hybrids is that they seem to either be solitary or attach themselves to groups of Canada geese, even if they are also domestic/Greylag geese around and they look more like domestic/Greylag geese than Canadas.

Next, some more "typical" looking (insomuch as such varied hybrids can be said to ever have a "typical" appearance) Canada x Greylag hybrids.

Hybrid geese at Boggart Hole Clough

At Boggart Hole Clough, on the Loiterers Resistance Movement's September day trip, i saw two geese that were obviously hybrids between the introduced Canada geese (Branta canadensis) and feral "barnyard" geese of Greylag Goose (Anser anser) descent. (The Greylag is the ancestor of most domestic geese, although some breeds also have ancestry from the Swan Goose (Anser cygnoides), which produces fully fertile hybrids with the Greylag. Hybrids between Anser geese and Branta geese, such as Canada x Greylag, are usually sterile.)







As can be seen, while these hybrids are most likely siblings originating from a single brood of eggs, they are very varied in appearance, with one bird taking more strongly after the Canada parent and the other taking more strongly after the Greylag, but both showing features clearly intermediate between the two.

The 2 hybrids were associating with a Canada and a large, grey and white domestic Greylag - presumably their parents (I have no idea which is the mother and which the father, or indeed how to determine the sex of geese in general, as unlike most ducks they seem not to show much, if any, obvious sexual dimorphism). I attempted to get a photo of all 4 together, but the light conditions somewhat defeated my camera, meaning that the best i could get was this:



(I didn't even notice the duck in the middle of the group when i took the photo, which is also a (sort-of) hybrid - a Manky Mallard, descended from interbreeding between wild Mallards and domestic ducks (both Anas platyrhynchos, so a similar situation to the wild Greylag and domestic goose)...)

The bleached-out white blur is a large, piebald domestic Greylag goose, very similar in appearance to this one (photographed at Platt Fields Park):



I have quite a few other photos of hybrid geese, which i will put in another post - the majority of other individuals of this (very variable) combination, but also a couple of much more unusual ones - watch this space...