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14 November 2022
Arizona sees an influx of visitors every winter hoping to enjoy the weather. Including feathered fowl such as Canada geese. As a result of urbanization, more Canada Geese are stopping in Arizona on their migration routes.
Canada geese are known across North America for their black and white heads and V-shaped migrating formations. These birds thrive in urban habitats, and humans help them by building artificial bodies of water.
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Like human snowbirds, geese flock to Arizona in the winter to stay warm. Nevertheless, some snowbirds have made a permanent home here, and most of the geese you see in the Valley are from up north. The graceful land and water creatures may seem like a beautiful addition to Arizona’s fauna, but they’ve become a nuisance.
Residents find these geese to be quite a problem, despite their beauty. Besides creating a big mess with their droppings and damaging turf, they can also be scary and territorial (especially if they have eggs around)! Geese will bite you if they feel threatened or if you get too close to their nests. Geese bites aren’t usually dangerous to humans but can cause bruising, bleeding, and infections.
As the number of artificial lakes and landscaping grows, more geese stop in Arizona instead of going further south to Mexico. Not only do they take advantage of the lakes, but they also feed on the nice Bermuda grass that’s usually next to them.
Some permanent resident geese came from a flock brought to Turf Paradise racetrack lake in the 1970s. They thought geese would be lovely in their infield lake. However, even then, there were efforts to address their population since the numbers were growing at an alarming rate.
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Over the past decade, volunteers across the Valley have been surveying the winter waterfowl population, which includes these Canadian geese. The Arizona Game and Fish Department coordinates and compiles data sent in by volunteers for the Greater Phoenix Waterbird Area Survey. In the Phoenix area, 5,517 Canadian geese were counted during the 2019 January survey. The number is up from 3,509 surveyed a decade ago.
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