Tule Goose

[Connor Cochrane]

Bird in question is the upper right bird. Doing some measurements on the computer it seems to be about 1.10x in size compared to the bird just below it, and the size difference was noticeable in the field. The left bird was the exact same size (in the field and measuring with the computer) as the bird in the bottom right. It looks darker with a thicker neck. The other bird is a juvenile though, but I don't know how much smaller it was. San Rafael, CA. 2 days ago. There was a massive push of GWFG two days ago, I think there were reports of up to 1000 of them in the county. I'll get another image up soon.

[Melierax]

I'd argue that the top right and left birds are the same size and the bottom one is smaller. It also has less white around the beak. Different subspecies?

[Tony Leukering]

1 minute ago, Melierax said:

Different subspecies?

That's what Connor is suggesting. I know almost nothing about Tule, so I beg off from providing an ID. However, I do see the differences Connor illustrates. Beware, though, that there is substantial size difference in all goose species, some related to subsp, some to sex, and a lot to individual variations, with young-of-the-year generally weighing less, which can impact impression of overall size.

[Connor Cochrane]

4 minutes ago, Melierax said:

I'd argue that the top right and left birds are the same size and the bottom one is smaller. It also has less white around the beak. Different subspecies?

I know that top right bird is larger, I have multiple images showing its large than both the other birds. The other birds are the same size. Those two are definetly spoons the pacific subspecies.

[Melierax]

24 minutes ago, Tony Leukering said:

That's what Connor is suggesting. I know almost nothing about Tule, so I beg off from providing an ID. However, I do see the differences Connor illustrates. Beware, though, that there is substantial size difference in all goose species, some related to subsp, some to sex, and a lot to individual variations, with young-of-the-year generally weighing less, which can impact impression of overall size.

Yeah I realized that then couldn't edit it ?

[Connor Cochrane]

Ill see if some people who know more about them could let me know. ITts highly unlikely it is one, there are only 5 Bay Area records, one of them from the 1930s and the other four by one guy, who has been birding the same place almost daily for 40 years. It would be a first county rec. I believe. I just noticed it looked little different.