Cackling Goose Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

The Cackling Goose was long considered just a small race of the Canada Goose. The smallest four of the eleven recognized races were recently determined to be distinct enough to be their own species. Cackling Goose includes the races known as Taverner's, Richardson's, Aleutian, and Cackling geese. Confusingly, the "Lesser Canada Goose" is still a race of the Canada Goose.

Although most Cackling Geese nest along ponds and streams in the tundra, the Aleutian form nests on south-facing turf slopes above rocky, cliff-bound shorelines. The Richardson's form can nest in colonies of several hundred pairs on cliffs and steep rock slopes.

The smallest form of the Cackling Goose is only a quarter the size of the "Giant Canada Goose" subspecies.

The oldest recorded Cackling Goose was a male, and at least 22 years, 8 months old when he was shot in Oregon in 2010. He had been banded in Alaska in 1987.