It’s spring — the time when birds nest and lay eggs. And outside Portland, one unusual nesting pair has attracted the attention of birders drawn to a story of love across differences. It’s also a story about loss, and a lesson in the peculiarities of nature.
There are a lot of geese at the Blue Lake Regional Park along the Columbia River in Fairview. So rangers weren’t surprised when they found a nesting Canada goose — large, with a black beak and black and white face — near some picnic benches early in the season.
But there was something strange about the other goose guarding the nest. It was small, grayish brown, with a yellow beak and white face.
“It piqued my interest,” said William McDonald, a park ranger doing his usual walkthrough of the park. “I started paying a little more attention.”
McDonald contacted wildlife specialists at Metro, the regional government agency that manages this park. It turned out the other goose was a greater white-fronted goose, a different species than the nesting Canada goose it was defending.
These are two totally different species of goose. But for some reason, they paired up – and they even produced eggs.
A male greater white-fronted goose, right, protects a nesting female Canada goose, left, in this video screenshot of a rare pairing of mixed species taken at Blue Lake Regional Park on April 16, 2025.
Cameron Neilsen / OPB
It’s not clear why the white-fronted goose decided to stay in this Oregon park, when his species typically migrates farther north for breeding season.
It’s possible he was stranded here after an injury, according to Robert Wilson, a zoology research associate professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Another theory: This white-fronted goose might have been raised by Canada geese.
“Canada geese and white-fronted geese are known to parasitize other nests,” Wilson said. “That just basically means that a female will dump one of its eggs in another species’ nest.”
That way, if something happens to her own nest, she has at least one surviving gosling elsewhere, even if it’s raised by another family. That gosling could later seek mates that look similar to its foster parents.
A male greater white-fronted goose, right, protects a nesting female Canada goose, left, in this video screenshot of an unusual pairing of two different species of geese at Blue Lake Regional Park on April 16, 2025.
Cameron Nielsen / OPB
The science of interspecies mating
It’s not unusual for animals of different species to produce offspring together — it’s called hybridization. Whether two species can successfully procreate depends on their gender, genes and other biological factors. For example, a male donkey and a female horse can produce a hybrid known as a mule, but it’s less common for a female donkey and a male horse to procreate.
Birders often report potential hybrids on websites like ebird.org, identifying them based on looks and behaviors. Rarely do people get to see the hybrids’ parents.
“Just to be able to witness the actual pair themselves,” Wilson said. “And if they could actually successfully reproduce — I mean, it’s quite unique. I’m kind of jealous that you guys get to see it.”
Animals tend to hybridize in the wild due to environmental factors, like climate change or human changes to the landscape.
“Humans can change the physical landscape either by planting trees or putting out feeders, and in doing that, they change the way that species interact,” said Kathryn Grabenstein, postdoctoral fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Grabenstein is studying two different species of chickadees in Boulder, Colorado, where people have planted ornamental trees, like cherries and maples. These softwoods attract black-capped chickadees, which excavate trees to build cavity nests.
Then people have added bird feeders. Those are attracting mountain chickadees to the same area.
“So birds that wouldn’t interact as often as they do now are now kind of all bumping into each other,” Grabenstein said.
Katy Weil, senior natural resource scientist for Metro, observes a rare pairing of two geese from different species nesting together at Blue Lake Regional Park in this video screenshot taken April 16, 2025.
Cameron Nielsen / OPB
A bonded pair experiences loss
Environmental factors like this could have brought the two geese in the Blue Lake park together. Geese are basically grass-eating machines, so they’re drawn to places like parks. The white-fronted goose could have stopped at this park because there was so much food and at least one female interested in pairing up.
By early May, local birders noticed two of the six eggs had hatched, but no goslings could be found near the goose couple.
“All we know is there were shell fragments enough to be two eggs’ worth,” said Katy Weil, senior natural resource scientist for Metro, a regional government agency that manages this park.
The remaining four eggs never hatched. Weil’s team examined them and determined that they never formed chicks — like they weren’t fertilized.
Weil said it’s normal for geese to have a bad batch of eggs. And there’s still a chance these birds could try again this spring.
“So many people who love the park are keeping an eye out for them,” Weil said. “They’re rooting for them. We have park rangers doing the same.”
Geese typically mate for life. So, regardless of whether they can make a family, this unlikely couple will likely stay by each other’s sides.
