Difference between revisions of "Snow Goose" - BirdForum Opus

Revision as of 17:03, 29 June 2012

Photo by richard bledsoe
New Mexico, USA

Identification

Entirely white except black primaries
Head and neck usually stained rusty brown
Pink bill with grin patch
Dark adults have black bodies with white necks and heads, juveniles dark all over. All intermediates possible.

Separating from Ross's Goose - Snow Goose has longer neck and bill. Ross's Goose has short neck and stubby bill that lacks grin patch.

Extreme northern Arctic in summer. Southern U.S. and Mexico, notably along coasts, but also at inland marshy reserves.

There are two recognized subspecies.^[1]

Nests of Arctic tundra in large colonies. Migrates southward in winter to marshy areas with adjacent fields.

Highly gregarious; nest, migrate, and forage in large flocks. Noisy, especially on takeoff. Fly in large V formations.

Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Snow Goose. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 10 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Snow_Goose

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 Separating from [[Ross's Goose]] - Snow Goose has longer neck and bill.  Ross's Goose has short neck and stubby bill that lacks grin patch.
 ==Distribution==
-[[Image:d05_011.jpg|thumb|350px|right|Foraging group showing Dark adults (R) and Juveniles (L). <br />Photo by {{user|Gary+Clark|Gary Clark}}. <br />Bay City, [[Texas]], [[USA]]]]
 Extreme northern [[Arctic]] in summer.  Southern [[U.S.]] and [[Mexico]], notably along coasts, but also at inland marshy reserves.
 ==Taxonomy==