Do Canada Geese Migrate? Why Some Stay All Year

Where migratory Canada geese go

Migratory Canada geese nest across a huge area, from Arctic tundra and the coasts of Hudson Bay to the marshes and prairie potholes of southern Canada and the northern United States. When winter approaches, they fly south to areas with open water and food, mainly in the central and southern United States, with some reaching northern Mexico.

North American wildlife agencies divide goose movements into four broad flyways, routes that migrating waterfowl follow: the Atlantic, Mississippi, Central and Pacific flyways. Many separate goose populations use these routes, each with its own breeding area, stopover sites and wintering grounds.

Geese migrate as families. Young birds learn the route, the stopover sites and the wintering grounds by flying with their parents, and the family usually stays together until the following spring. Their famous V formation, explained in why do geese fly in a V?, helps save energy on the journey.

Why some Canada geese stopped migrating

The rise of resident, non-migratory Canada geese is one of the biggest changes in North American birdlife in the last century. Several causes came together.

Restocking programs. In the early 1900s, overhunting and wetland drainage left Canada geese scarce in many regions, and the giant Canada goose was thought to be extinct until a flock was found in Minnesota in 1962. Wildlife agencies then bred geese in captivity and released them across the Midwest and East. These birds had never been taught a migration route by their parents, so many of them, and their descendants, stayed where they were released.

Lawns and ponds. Mown grass beside ponds is perfect goose habitat: short, nutritious shoots to graze, and open water to escape to, with a clear view of approaching predators. Parks, golf courses, office parks, sports fields and housing developments provide this in abundance.

Few predators and little hunting. In towns, there are fewer coyotes and foxes, and hunting is not allowed. Adult geese survive well, and many live 10 to 20 years or more.

Open water and food in winter. Rivers below dams, power plant outflows and urban ponds often stay partly ice-free, and people sometimes feed geese. In mild regions, geese do not need to leave.

The result is that resident flocks grew quickly. Ohio had an estimated 18,000 Canada geese in 1979 and about 130,000 in 2015, many of them living in the state all year.

Short-stopping: migrants that stop early

Even among geese that still migrate, many now winter farther north than they used to. This is called short-stopping. Waste corn and other grain left in harvested fields, along with reservoirs and other open water, give geese enough food and shelter to spend the winter in places like the Midwest instead of continuing to the Gulf Coast.

As a result, some traditional southern wintering areas see fewer geese than in the past, while winter flocks in northern states and southern Canada have grown.

The molt migration

Some resident geese still make a journey of a different kind. Each summer, adult geese molt all their flight feathers at once and cannot fly for several weeks. Non-breeding birds, and adults that lost their eggs, often fly north to safe, food-rich areas to molt. This is called a molt migration.

Some geese from the northern United States fly as far as the Hudson Bay region of Canada to molt, then return south in late summer. In Britain, a well-known molt migration takes Canada geese from Yorkshire and other parts of England to the Beauly Firth in northern Scotland.

Canada geese in Europe

Canada geese were introduced to Europe from the 17th century onward and are now common in Britain, Ireland, France, the Low Countries and Scandinavia. Most British and Irish birds are resident, moving only locally between lakes, rivers and fields, apart from the molt migrants.

In Scandinavia it is different. Canada geese breeding in northern Sweden and Finland leave in autumn, when lakes freeze, and spend the winter on the coasts of the Baltic and North Sea, for example in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.

A few genuinely wild Canada geese from North America also reach Europe each year. Ringing recoveries have confirmed that some cross the Atlantic naturally, usually traveling with flocks of other Arctic geese.

How geese find their way

Migrating geese navigate using a combination of landmarks such as coastlines, rivers and mountain ranges, the position of the sun, and probably the stars and Earth’s magnetic field, like many other migratory birds. Because young geese learn routes from their parents, traditions can be lost when families are disrupted, and new traditions can form, as seen in resident flocks.

To learn more about why birds make these journeys at all, see why do birds migrate? and how do migrating birds navigate?.