The Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) is the large, dark-necked goose with a black head and a broad white cheek stripe, originally native to North America but introduced to Sweden in the 1920s and 1930s as a game bird — it has since spread across much of the country and is today one of the most conspicuous geese in the region. It is a big bird, 90–110 cm long with a wingspan of roughly 160–185 cm and a weight of about 3.5–6 kg, among the largest geese found in Scandinavia. The body is greyish-brown, the head and neck black, a broad white stripe runs from the throat up across the cheek, the undertail is white, and the bill and legs are black; the sexes look alike, though males average slightly larger. The call is a powerful, two-note trumpeting "a-honk", audible at long range from both flying flocks and birds on the water, and flocks can be notably noisy when taking off.
Canada Geese breed across most of Sweden except the mountains, nesting on the ground near water — often on an island or in dense waterside vegetation sheltered from land predators — where the female lays 5–6 eggs and incubates them for 28–30 days while the male stands guard nearby; the goslings are precocial and follow their parents to the water soon after hatching. The Swedish breeding population is estimated at 30,000–50,000 pairs, and while many birds are largely resident, others move short distances south for the winter, gathering in large flocks on farmland and ice-free waters. The diet is almost entirely grass, herbs and winter cereals grazed from lawns, pasture and fields, supplemented with aquatic plants; large grazing flocks can locally cause conflicts at bathing spots and in parks. The species is classified as Least Concern (LC).
Read about this species in Swedish →