Goose, Greylag
The greylag is the largest and bulkiest of the grey geese of the genus Anser. It has a rotund, bulky body, a thick and long neck, and a large head and bill. It has pink legs and feet, and an orange or pink bill with a white or brown nail (hard horny material at tip of upper mandible). It is 74 to 91 centimetres long with a wing length of 41.2 to 48 centimetres. The plumage of the greylag goose is greyish-brown, with a darker head and paler breast and belly with a variable amount of black spotting. It has a pale grey fore-wing and rump which are noticeable when the bird is in flight or stretches its wings on the ground. It has a white line bordering its upper flanks, and its wing coverts are light-coloured, contrasting with its darker flight feathers. Its plumage is patterned by the pale fringes of the feathers. Juveniles differ mostly in their lack of black-speckling on the breast and belly and by their greyish legs.
When the bird was spotted
Date | Location | Title | Seen by | Interestingness |
---|---|---|---|---|
UK, Teesside and the North York Moors | Hemlington Lake | b.m.stokesley | ||
France, Leymen | On the Goose pond | mike421 | * | |
UK, Teesside and the North York Moors | Stewart Park | b.m.stokesley | ||
Germany, Dagebüll | on meadows near lakes | Hühnerhabicht | ||
UK, Teesside and the North York Moors | near Clay Bank | b.m.stokesley | * | |
UK, Teesside and the North York Moors | Fields near Seamer | b.m.stokesley | ||
Germany, not specified | more than 100 on the meadows and on the lake of Schloss Moritzburg near Dresden | Hühnerhabicht | *** | |
France, Leymen | Goose pond, Leymen | mike421 | * | |
UK, Teesside and the North York Moors | Lockwood Beck Reservioir | b.m.stokesley | ||
UK, Teesside and the North York Moors | Saltholme | b.m.stokesley | ||
UK, Teesside and the North York Moors | Saltholme | mike421 | * | |
France, Leymen | On the tennis court pond | mike421 | * | |
France, Leymen | On the pond next to the tennis court | mike421 | ** | |
Switzerland, not specified | In the ponds by the zoo | mike421 | * |