Pink-footed goose

The pink-footed goose (Anser brachyrhynchus) is a goose that lives in specific cold areas and travels long distances each year. These geese breed in eastern Greenland, Iceland, Svalbard, and recently Novaya Zemlya. After breeding, they fly to warmer places to spend the winter, mainly in northwest Europe. You can often find them in Ireland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and western Denmark.

Their name, "pink-footed goose," comes from the pink color of their legs and feet, which helps them stand out. Sometimes people shorten the name to "pinkfoot" or "pinkfeet" when talking about them. The word Anser in their scientific name simply means "goose" in Latin. The second part of their name, brachyrhynchus, comes from ancient Greek words meaning "short bill," which describes the shape of their beaks. These geese are interesting because of their long journeys and special features.

Description

The pink-footed goose is a medium-sized bird, measuring between 60 and 75 cm (24 to 30 inches) long with a wingspan of 135 to 170 cm (53 to 67 inches). It weighs between 1.8 and 3.4 kg (4.0 to 7.5 lb). This goose has a short bill that is bright pink in the middle, with a black base and tip, and its feet are also pink. Its body is a mid-grey-brown color, while its head and neck are darker brown. The rump and vent are white, and the tail is grey with a broad white tip. The upper wing feathers are a pale bluish-grey, similar to the tundra bean goose, but the flight feathers are blackish-grey, like the greylag goose.

Taxonomy

The pink-footed goose is closely related to the taiga bean goose, which is larger. It is not related to a similar-sized subspecies of the tundra bean goose, as was once thought. These geese make a lot of high-pitched honking sounds, especially when they are flying in groups. When many of them fly together, the noise can be very loud.

Population

There are two main groups of pink-footed geese. One group lives in Greenland and Iceland and spends the winter in Great Britain. The other group lives in Svalbard and Novaya Zemlya and winters in the Netherlands and Denmark, with some also in Norway, northern Germany, and Belgium.

The number of pink-footed geese has grown a lot over the past 50 years because they are now protected from hunting during winter. In Ireland and Great Britain, the number of geese has gone from 30,000 in 1950 to 292,000 in 2004. In Denmark and the Netherlands, numbers have also increased, with about 34,000 in 1993. The biggest breeding area is in Iceland, where 10,700 pairs were found in 1970. In Great Britain, important areas for wintering geese are in Norfolk, Lancashire, and Aberdeenshire. In Ireland, they mainly winter in County Louth. Big groups of geese can be seen on farmland, like the group of 66,000 at Loch of Strathbeg in 2003.

Recently, a new group of pink-footed geese has started breeding on the Novaya Zemlya islands in Russia. This group formed within 10 years from geese that came from Svalbard. This change is thought to be because of climate change, which made Novaya Zemlya warmer, and because geese can learn from each other. As of 2023, this new group had about 3,000 to 4,000 birds.

Ecology

Pink-footed geese often build their nests on cliffs near glaciers. This helps protect them from animals like the Arctic fox. They lay three to six eggs between early May and late May, depending on where they are. After the eggs hatch, the baby geese, called goslings, follow their parents to the nearest lake. It takes about 56 days for the goslings to grow their feathers and fly.

These geese mostly eat plants. In the summer, they eat many types of plants that grow on tundra, both on land and in water. During winter, they eat crops like oilseed rape, sugar beet, potato, and different kinds of grasses. While they sometimes damage crops, they can also help farmers by eating leaves and roots left after harvesting, which can help prevent diseases in the next year's crops.

Vagrancy

Though many pink-footed geese spend their winters in Great Britain, only a few are seen in Ireland and France. This goose is a rare visitor to other parts of Europe, as far south as Morocco and the Canary Islands. It has also been spotted in eastern Canada and the United States, from Newfoundland to Pennsylvania. In November and December 2022, a pink-footed goose was seen many times in Kentucky, marking the first time this bird was observed in that state.

The pink-footed goose is one of the birds protected by the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA).