[flitter]

Hi, I'm fairly new to photography and birding. Spotted this unusual Canada Goose on my way to Pitt-Addington Marsh, Pitt Meadows and thanks to some helpful people here now know that it is in fact a Canada Goose. Thought I'd share a couple photos as this is the first and only one I have ever seen.

[Larry Cowan]

This bird was present in the Pitt/Addington area last year as well.

[Crysser]

What an amazing coincidence! After reading this post this morning, I went out to Queen Elizabeth Park to enjoy the nice weather and lo, I find this guy in the duck pond.

He didn't seem to mind the attention he was getting from the people, and actually seemed to be pushing the other geese around a bit.
I've never seen (or maybe just never noticed) a goose like this before. I wonder what causes this colouration (dilution gene perhaps?) and how rare is it to come across geese like this?

[esle9]

Nice photos!
I've seen the leucistic goose at QE Park too. I also know of three living at Stanley Park which have been there since at least June (I call them Luke, Fluke, and Snowflake.) Leucism is a genetic condition which affects the birds ability to produce the pigment Melanin. Melanin is what makes black, grey, and brown colours in feathers (and skin and hair), and is a strengthening pigment, so darker feathers are stronger than light feathers. (That's why some birds like gulls have black wingtips, it protects the flight feathers from wear are tear). Leucistic birds are more at risk to having their feathers wear out, last year the Stanley Park leucistic geese had some pretty ratty looking tail feathers before molting fresh ones.

[Crysser]

Thanks for the info Else! So they're uncommon, but not earth-shatteringly so.

[MDB8]

I've photographed a bird like this several times over the past 3 years.

What I noticed about the bird I photographed and it appears to be the same for the first bird in the thread is that it was much larger than the Canada Geese around it. The one I saw at Iona looked as if it might weigh 50% more than its mate and most of the Geese nearby.

In the thread that ran at that time someone speculated that it might be a hybrid with a Swan. I have no idea if such mating is possible, but the other day someone told me that a Canada Goose was flying with a Snow Goose at Burnaby Lake. Lots of "varieties" of Canada Geese.