This most familiar and most common of the wild geese is best known in urban areas as a visitor in spring and fall.

Sizes vary, but the head and neck markings make this goose easily identifiable. The Canadas breed on lake shores and coastal marshes, primarily in Canada, and migrate in organized units utilizing the well known V-formation, although sometimes flying in long strings of birds. Flying by day and night, Canadas have set down in flocks on city squares, apparently mistaking a pool of light for a water surface. They seldom live in cities or towns, although visiting urban parks on occasions. Their honking cries in migration have stirred the blood of many an urbanite on a fall night when traffic noises let the wild cry from the skies leak through.