Greylag Goose

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"Wild Goose" redirects here. For , see .

The Greylag Goose, Anser anser, is a bird with a wide range in the Old World, apparently breeding where suitable localities are to be found in many European countries, although it no longer breeds in southwestern Europe. Eastwards it extends across Asia to China. It is the type species of the genus Anser. It was in pre-Linnean times known as the Wild Goose (anser ferus).

The breeding habitat is a variety of wetlands including marshes, lakes, and damp heather moors.

The Greylag is a large goose, 74-84 cm long with a 149-168 cm wingspan. It has a large head and almost triangular bill. The legs are pink, and the bird is easily identified in flight by the pale leading edge to the wing.

The western European nominate subspecies, A. a. anser, has an orange-pink bill and is slightly smaller and darker than the pink-billed Asian race, A. a. rubrirostris. Eastern European birds are often intermediate in appearance. It has a loud cackle kiYAAA-ga-ga, like the domestic goose.

This species is the ancestor of domesticated geese in Europe and North America. Flocks of feral birds derived from domesticated birds are widespread.

This species is migratory, moving south or west in winter, but Scottish breeders, some other populations in northwestern Europe, and feral flocks are largely resident. This species is one of the last to migrate, and it is thought that the English name signifies late, last, or slow, as in laggard, a loiterer, or old terms such as lagman, the last man, lagteeth, the posterior molar or "wisdom" teeth (as the last to appear), and lagclock, a clock that is behind time.

Thus the Greylag Goose is the grey goose, which in England when the name was given, was not strongly migratory but lagged behind the other wild goose species when they left for their northern breeding quarters.

In Great Britain, they much declined as a breeding bird, retreating north to breed wild only in the Outer Hebrides and the northern mainland of Scotland. However, since the 1930s and 1960s feral populations have been established eleswhere, and they have now re-colonised much of England.

Within science, the greylag goose is most notable as being the bird with which the ethologist Konrad Lorenz first did his major studying into the behavioural phenomenon of imprinting.

The Greylag Goose is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

North America

In North America, small populations of Greylag Geese, descended from domesticated geese have become established, mostly in city parks and near humans. These geese usually exist as part of larger flocks of Canada Geese. The Greylag Goose can hybridize with the native Canada Geese, producing birds which, to say the least, can be puzzling to birders attempting to identify them.

Gallery

References

• BirdLife International (2004). [Anser anser]. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern

External links

• [RSPB A to Z of UK Birds]
• [Greylag Goose videos] on the Internet Bird Collection
• [Confusing Domestic Geese] - An article about Greylag geese in North America, with photos

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