[TN-Bird] More on "Canada" Geese

Reading posts here and elsewhere, it seems to me there is some  
confusion about the migratory geese in Tennessee and what the  
"Lesser" Canada Goose really is.  The basics, as I have understood them:

The year-round resident geese are a bit of a synthetic blend,  
containing a lot of blood from the "Giant" Canada Goose, B. c.  
maxima.  They are generally large in size with long necks and long  
legs.  The somewhat smaller geese that are common in wintering flocks  
are *not* "Lesser" Canada Geese.  They are primarily smaller  
individuals of the "Interior" Canada Goose, B. c. minima.  These are  
the ones that are moderately smaller and shorter-necked than the big  
resident birds, and are very common.  The real "Lesser" Canada Goose,  
B. c. parvipes, is not a common bird here.  They are notably smaller  
and far closer in size to "Richardson's" Cackling Goose (B. h.  
hutchinsii) than they are to the "Interior" geese.  They are short- 
necked, short-billed, short-legged as well as being distinctly small  
even without a "normal" Canada Goose for comparison.  They overlap  
broadly with B. h. hutchinsii in all measurements and plumage  
characters, including bill length and total body mass, as far as I  
have been able to determine.

In eastern Colorado, where the relative abundances of these four  
subspecies are more evenly spread, a flock of winter geese tends to  
look like a complete multidimensional spectrum of sizes, shapes, and  
colors.  They don't sort out at all neatly into four "kinds."

Sorry to be a bit redundant here, but this is a confusing field issue  
that still needs a lot of work to sort out.

Bill Pulliam
Hohenwald TN
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