#Wild goose sound how to

Many of our coastal and wetland nature reserves are great places to search for geese.J17 Animal Sounds in English: How to Make Sounds Like Cats, Dogs and More Wild geese that travel here for the winter tend to return to favoured areas and can be reliably seen most years at these traditional sites. Greylags and Canada geese can be found in many places across the UK all year round. The belly colour varies, often subtly, between the different races. Their backs are dark too, creating a noticeable contrast with their white undertail. Adults have a small white neck-patch on their otherwise black head, neck and breast. But for now, let’s park that and look at the bird’s main features! The size alone should help with the identification of this goose, along with its overall dark look. Each subspecies is, with care, identifiable. These also come in more than one variety, depending on which breeding population they come from. Their insistent call is reminiscent of a yapping dog!Īlmost entirely restricted to coastal habitats, brent geese are our smallest native goose, around the same size as a mallard. At range they are strikingly monochromatic, with a light grey belly, dark grey back and black chest and neck, offset with a striking creamy-white face. These relatively small geese breed on remote Arctic islands and flock to wintering grounds around the UK, though the vast majority head to the Solway Firth and Islay. Although these birds are resident here in the UK, many undergo shorter-range migrations between breeding areas, moulting sites and wintering locations.īarnacle geese too are a bit of a doddle to identify. It doesn’t even have pink or orange legs they are black. This is a formidable bird, with brown body, black neck and head and a large white cheek patch. Identification of the familiar Canada goose should be pretty straightforward (if we exclude the rare vagrant wild subspecies…).

These birds also have orange legs and a larger dark bill, with varying amounts of orange on it. Generally, these are somewhat larger and browner than pink-footed geese with a darker head and neck that can seem quite obvious when they are feeding alongside their commoner cousins. Very similar in many ways to our old friend the pink-foot, this scarce bird also comes in two varieties, the taiga bean goose and the tundra bean goose. Just to make things a little trickier, we also have the bean goose to consider. Or at least the adults do… younger birds lack both these features making identification a little more challenging! Plus, these long-distance visitors have distinctive black bars across their bellies. Better still, they can be identified by the obvious white blaze on their forehead, after which they are named. Both are orange-legged but their bill colours vary the Greenland race has a matching orange one while the Russian white-fronts come with a pink bill. The uncommon white-fronted goose comes in two varieties. With a much sturdier orange bill and larger head this goose stands out from its daintier cousins. This bruiser of a bird is quite familiar as many, though not all, are of feral origin and can be found across much of the UK. Their tell-tale call is not so much a honk as a ‘wink-wink’!Īlso pink-legged is the larger greylag goose.

The body is generally a brown/grey colour. As its name implies, this bird sports pink legs and feet as well as having a pink band on its otherwise dark bill. The commonest of the wild geese is the pink-footed goose.

Wild goose sound