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The UK Bird Atlas

Cackling Goose (Branta hutchinsii)Where and when to see it in the UK

Status not yet classified · reporting peaks January · Ducks, Swans, and Geese · BOU category AE

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Cackling Goose (Branta hutchinsii)
Roy Lowe/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Cackling Goose: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Cackling Goose has been recorded in 60 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (2%) in records to 2026. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in January.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
100% or more of visits
High
3% to 100%
Moderate
<1% to 3%
Low
under <1%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 100%<1%Very high
February 54%<1%Moderate
March 60%<1%High
April 37%<1%Moderate
May 2%<1%Low
June 2%<1%Moderate
July 4%<1%Low
August 0%<1%Insufficient records
September 1%<1%Very high
October 28%<1%Very high
November 26%<1%Moderate
December 50%<1%Low

Squares with the highest reporting rate in January

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
NF77Na h-Eileanan Siar, Scotland100%Very high
NR26Argyll and Bute, Scotland100%Very high
SO70Gloucestershire, England100%Very high
SP68Leicestershire, England100%Very high
SW53Cornwall, England100%Very high
SX98Devon, England100%Very high
TF44Lincolnshire, England100%Very high
TF73Norfolk, England100%Very high
TQ09Hertfordshire, England100%Very high
NR62Argyll and Bute, Scotland45%High

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.