The Canada goose story is similar to that of many other UK resident birds, in that they are an introduced species gone wild.

Originally introduced to Britain by King Charles II in 1665 as an addition to his waterfowl collection, Canada geese are now widespread and successfully surviving as a feral bird. Numbers had been relatively low until the 1950's, after which a population explosion resulted a UK headcount of over 60 000 birds in 1991. Not all of our resident birds are from feral stock; vagrants do arrive from time to time among large flocks of mixed geese, touching down mostly in Scotland.