Cackling Geese in Flight
Branta hutchinsii
Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge
Olympia, WA
December 2, 2011
According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
"The newly recognized Cackling Goose is a smaller version of the Canada Goose. Formerly considered the smallest subspecies of one variable species, recent work on genetic differences found the four smallest forms to be very different. These four races are now recognized as a full species: the Cackling Goose. It breeds farther northward and westward than does the Canada Goose."
