Canada Goose Branta canadensis x Barnacle Goose Branta leucopsis hybrid

A fairly frequent hybrid among feral populations but I've come across more Cackling Goose x Barnacle Goose hybrids. Hybrids are fertile so backcrosses also occur.

Both of the birds shown here were with feral Barnacle Geese. Some of the photos of the first one look like one or two of the accompanying Barnacle Geese might be backcrossed hybrids but I think this is a result of the poor quality photos.

Canada Goose x Barnacle Goose hybrid with Barnacle Geese, Rushill Scrape, Hickling (Norfolk, UK), 10th August 2009

Canada Goose x Barnacle Goose hybrid, Burnham Overy (Norfolk, UK), 5th June 2015

For comparison, here are photos of the parent species.

Canada Goose, Swanton Morley fishing lakes (Norfolk, UK), 16th August 2008 and Barnacle Goose, south of Brancaster (Norfolk, UK), 30th October 2007

For more photos of these species follow the links below:

• Canada Goose
• Barnacle Goose