Cackling Goose

Cackling goose?  Don't all geese cackle? I suppose they do, but there is a species called a cackling goose. There used to be a single species of Canada goose, but in 2004 ornithologists made a decision to split the Canada goose into two species, Canada goose and cackling goose. The cackling goose is smaller bodied and breeds in the tundra.  The Canada goose and cackling goose are difficult to tell apart, but I'm going to stick my neck out and call the two smallest geese in the photo cackling geese.

Many birds are distinguished by bill size or color, and cackling geese have shorter stubbier bills than Canada geese, as these two birds do. One birder recommends looking for a blazing white cheek on a cackling goose, and this is also true for these two birds.  I discovered these birds among a couple thousand other geese by scanning for a subflock, and these two geese were flocking together.  In general the cackling goose is smaller, but one can't completely rely on size identification since Canada goose size is variable.