The Dusky Canada Goose
The centerpiece of the entire process is the assumption that hunters can be trained to distinguish the rare and often seen Dusky from the hunter-desirable species such as the Western, the Taverners, and the Cacklers. It's all in the size. Well, the size and the call. Well, the size and the call and the breast color. Well, the size and the call and the breast color and the black neck-breast contrast line. Well, all those things and the flock size and the ease of decoying. In practice, if it is a BIG goose with a low honk you better be wary and NOT shoot unless you see a neck collar that is NOT red. A lot of Westerns get a free pass, the light breast and sharp black neck-gray breast contrast line being too difficult to be sure of under flying, hunting conditions. The small geese, the Taverners and the Cacklers are easier to distinguish by call, size, and flock size. But you can only shoot 2 Cacklers a day. And, of course, all these geese often fly together in mixed flocks.
The following pictures are offered as practice and identification aids.
Cacklers are tiny, fly in huge flocks, have dark coloring identical to a Dusky, and yelp.
Taverners are larger than Cacklers, smaller than Duskies, fly in large flocks, have light grey breasts , and high pitched, yelping calls.
Duskies are large geese, deep honks, tend to fly low and in small groups, and show a very poorly defined (or not at all) contrast between black neck color and breast color.
But the feds reserve the right to classify any goose you kill based solely on bill length, which you measured before you pulled the trigger, right?