Anser caerulescens x Branta hutchinsii
Status: Uncommon regular winter visitor west and west central; rare casual elsewhere.
Winter: Nov 14, 17, 19 <<<>>> Mar 23, 23, 25
Earlier dates are 31 Oct 2023 Scotts Bluff Co, and 8 Nov 2022 Scotts Bluff Co.
There are about 60 records, 31 Oct-28 Mar, most in the Panhandle and east to Keith and Lincoln Cos. Most are associated with Cackling Geese.
Reports in the east central and east are fewer: 23 Nov 2021 Platte Co, 29 Dec 2021 Adams Co, and 27 Feb 2022 Douglas Co. Different singles (by photographs) were at each of two Buffalo Co locations 3 Dec 2023 and 2 Feb 2024, and another was there 8 Feb 2026.
Best count is four, in Scotts Bluff Co 30 Nov 2020, and 19 Nov 2025.
Comments: There are at least 100 records concentrated on the Great Plains between Nebraska and northern Texas in winter in eBird (accessed Dec 2025).
There is discussion and several photographs of this hybrid at Bird Hybrids: Snow Goose x Cackling Goose. This is a naturally occurring hybrid that can be difficult to tell apart from Snow Goose x Canada Goose hybrids, or indeed Ross’s Goose x Canada/Cackling Goose hybrids (Bird Hybrids: Snow Goose x Cackling Goose).
Steven Mlodinow points out that in general Snow Goose X Cackling Goose hybrids are larger than Snow Geese and Ross’s Goose x Cackling Goose hybrids are smaller, probably because such hybrids are generally between Snow Goose and smaller races of Canada Goose.
Cackling Goose hybrids seem most prevalent from eastern Colorado east into central Nebraska and south to the Texas Panhandle, the main wintering area for Cackling Geese (Mlodinow et al 2024). In eastern Colorado, a flock of 10,000 Cackling Goose during winter will typically contain 5–20 Snow Goose x Cackling Goose or Ross’s Goose x Cackling Goose hybrids, with the ratio between the two roughly estimated at 3:1 to 5:1 (Mlodinow et al 2024).
A prudent way to report the group of hybrids, Ross’s or Snow as one parent and Cackling or Canada the other, is ROGO/SNGO x CANG/CACG. Such reports are often of birds too distant to identify; there are three records for Nebraska, four at Lake Minatare, Scotts Bluff Co 30 Nov 2020, and singles at Scottsbluff WTP, Scotts Bluff Co 13 Dec 2021, and at Barnett Park, Red Willow Co 28 Dec 2021 (eBird.org accessed Dec 2024).
Literature Cited
Mlodinow, S.G., P. Pyle, T.B. Mowbray, C.R. Ely, J.S. Sedinger, R.E. Trost, K.A. Spragens, and M.A. Patten. 2024. Cackling Goose (Branta hutchinsii), version 2.0. In Birds of the World (N. D. Sly, P. G. Rodewald, and B. K. Keeney, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.cacgoo1.02.
Images
Recommended Citation
Silcock, W.R., and J.G. Jorgensen. 2026. Snow x Cackling Goose (hybrid) (Anser caerulescens x Branta hutchinsii). In Birds of Nebraska — Online. www.BirdsofNebraska.org
Birds of Nebraska – Online
last updated 20 Jul 2026