At the begining of the movie “Duck Duck Goose”, the main character argue with V-formation migration, another goose suggest formate as W and A, then the main character suggest another formation.
In the real goose migration formation, they are not always formate as standard V-formation. As I investigate migration goose, I can see many converted V form like “V form - branch”. Sometimes, the migration formation can be change, at the begining they are migrate in a standard V-form, later then they change to messy form.
What are other goose migration formation do you see?
I often see them flying in a single angled line, a long “\” instead of a “V” or else in more of a “✓” (in other words a very lopsided V that might have 3 geese on one side and 20 on the other.) I think sometimes when there’s a strong crosswind, one angle of what would be a normal “V” is much easier flying than the other.
Sloppy formations with more than one lead point make less sense, because more than one bird is expending the extra energy needed to fly point. Maybe they only happen when two flocks have just joined up, or are about to go their separate ways, or maybe just because geese don’t overthink the practicality of it.
It would be cool if they added more letters and learned to spell!
it doesn’t look to me like geese are purposely trying to fly in a particular formation. they just seem to fly in wherever is the best position next to another goose, relative to the wind, that happens to be the most efficient. it’s probably also related to their relative level of tiredness at any given time, too.
There’s a Wikipedia article on V formation flocks that has a useful summary of some of the research, such as the amount of energy saved and suggestions for how birds maintain their postions in a V (or vee).
One paper from 1974 reports an extensive series of filmed observations of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) from several viewpoints and subsequent trigonometric analysis to determine the “true angle” between members of the flock.
Lisa Lofland Gould, and Frank Heppner. “The Vee Formation of Canada Geese.” The Auk, vol. 91, no. 3, 1974, pp. 494–506. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/4084469.
The paper also records the variety of formations other than “vee”, including “column/echelon”, “jay”, “compound vee” and “cluster”. These formations are supposedly defined in another 1974 paper:
HEPPNER, F. H., AND J. HAFFNER. 1974. “Communication in bird flocks: an electromagnetic model.” Proc. Symp. on Effects of Low Frequency Magnetic and Electric Fields on Biol. Commun. Processes, Aspen, Colorado. Springfield, Illinois, C. C. Thomas. (Available to borrow at https://archive.org/details/biologicclinical0000symp/page/146/mode/2up )
That second paper mostly reports filmed observations of Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) flocks, and has some interesting speculations on electromagnetic communication among flock members. It discusses “the coordinated cluster” and looser formations but it doesn’t actually define the terms for formations used in the Canada Goose paper.
