During the second year of their lives, Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) find a mate. They are monogamous, and most couples stay together all of their lives. If one dies, the other may find a new mate. The female lays 3-8 eggs and both parents protect the nest while the eggs incubate, but the female spends more time at the nest than the male.
Known egg predators include coyotes, foxes, raccoons, large gulls, wolves, ravens and bears.
The incubation period, in which the female...
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During the second year of their lives, Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) find a mate. They are monogamous, and most couples stay together all of their lives. If one dies, the other may find a new mate. The female lays 3-8 eggs and both parents protect the nest while the eggs incubate, but the female spends more time at the nest than the male.
Known egg predators include coyotes, foxes, raccoons, large gulls, wolves, ravens and bears.
The incubation period, in which the female incubates while the male remains nearby, lasts for 24-28 days after laying. As the annual summer molt also takes place during the breeding season, the adults lose their flight feathers for 20-40 days, regaining flight at about the same time as their goslings start to fly.
Adult geese are often seen leading their goslings in a line, usually with one parent at the front, and the other at the back. While protecting their goslings, parents often violently chase away nearby creatures, from small blackbirds to lone humans that approach, after warning them by giving off a hissing sound and will then attack with bites and slaps of the wings if the threat does not retreat or has seized a gosling. Most of the species that prey on eggs will also take a gosling. Although parents are hostile to unfamiliar geese, they may form groups of a number of goslings and a few adults, called crèches.
The offspring enter the fledging stage any time from 6 to 9 weeks of age. They do not leave their parents until after the spring migration, when they return to their birthplace. Once they reach adulthood, Canada Geese are rarely preyed on, but (beyond humans) are taken by coyotes, wolves, snowy owls, golden eagles and bald eagles.
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