Multiple banded Canada Geese

While walking around my neighborhood on November 1, I spotted a group of 11 Canada Geese in a pond adjacent to my yard. Considering I once found a Purple Gallinule in this pond, I always check it out. You never know what you will find even in your own yard!

As you can see in the photo, three of these Canada Geese had yellow neck bands.

The bands read C279, C286, and C295. After entering all of the birds into eBird as usual, I went to reportband.gov to enter the bands. You are lead to a form where you have to provide information including band type and placement, color of the band and letters or numbers, positioning of these characters, and so forth. You also provide the location with GPS coordinates, the status of the birds, and all of your own information.

When I received the band information back from USGS, I learned that all three of these birds were banded on June 23 of this year. They were all adults at banding, two males and a female, and all three of them were banded at Beardsley Park in Bridgeport by the DEEP. Considering the fact these three banded geese were together when I spotted them and the band numbers were close I had surmised they were banded together.

Despite the fact many Canada Geese fly south for the winter these birds are obviously still here. Perhaps they are residents and will remain in the general area year-round. Nevertheless, it is still important to learn how banded birds move around, whether it is by a few miles like this or much more.


Scott Kruitbosch
Conservation Technician