Greater White Fronted Goose

Greater White Fronted Geese are gray-brown with bright-orange legs and feet and pink to orange bills. Their chests and bellies are irregularly barred and blotched with black. They have a high-pitched, musical tittering, soprano calls that are somewhat reminiscent of hysterical laughter. The Arctic-breeding range of the five circumpolar races is the most expansive of the ten gray geese. The small short-necked European White-fronted Geese (A.a. albifrons) are similar to Pacific White-fronted Geese (A.a. frontalis). The differences between the two races are evident in the varying neck and bill. The two races interbreed where their ranges overlap in Siberia. The larger pacific birds are characterized by a longer bill and darker head and underparts. They nest from northeastern Siberia to central Arctic Canada, their stronghold is in the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta of western Alaska. The American birds winter in California, Texas, Louisiana and the east coast of northern Mexico, with most congregating in the Sacramento Valley. The Gulf Coast-wintering birds are designated as Gambel’s White-fronted Geese (A.a. gambelli) whereas the central California birds are known as Tule Geese (A.a. elgasi). Larger and darker than Pacific race, gambelli has a longer bill and a longer neck. They nest in the Old Crow Flats of the Mackenzie River basin region of western Canada and the adjacent Alaskan Yukon. The Tule Geese are the largest and grandest of the white-fronts. Many show yellow eye-rings, and rich chocolate-brown heads greatly accentuate their white forehead. They winter along with thousands of Pacific White-fronts in central California wildlife refuges. The smaller geese prefer open areas and normally forage in large flocks on cultivated land, whereas the larger Tula Geese remain secluded on wetter terrain in hick tules and scrub growth, and feed extensively on tubers and rhizomes. They are relatively slow and vulnerable to hunters. Larger than the European birds, Greenland White-fronted Geese (A.a. flavirostris) have orange-yellow bills, extensive black belly bars and blotches. They breed in western Greenland and undertake a journey across the North Atlantic to Ireland, western Scotland and Wales rather than shifting to the much nearer American coast.