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Canada Goose

Canada Goose.jpg Common Tern, AdultThumbnailsHerring Gull, Breeding PlumageCommon Tern, AdultThumbnailsHerring Gull, Breeding PlumageCommon Tern, AdultThumbnailsHerring Gull, Breeding PlumageCommon Tern, AdultThumbnailsHerring Gull, Breeding PlumageCommon Tern, AdultThumbnailsHerring Gull, Breeding Plumage

Other Names.—Wild Goose; Honker.

Description.—Size large, about that of a domestic Goose, with about the same proportions; sexes similar. Head and neck black, a broad band under eye, and across throat, white; upperparts brownish gray, the feathers margined with a lighter shade, giving a somewhat scaled appearance; breast and sides gray-brown, more or less as in back; belly white; rump and tail black; upper tail-coverts white. Feet and bill black; eyes dark brown. Length: About 3 feet.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A regular and sometimes common migrant from mid-February to early April and from October 15 to November 30, sometimes occurring in winter, even when ice covers the lakes, at which times the great birds stand about on the frozen surface. As a rule, Canada Geese do not stop long in Pennsylvania; most flocks do not linger here at all, merely passing over.