Duck-like Birds
Snow Goose
Chen caerulescens
Description
25-31" (64-79 cm). Smaller than the
domestic goose. Pure white with black wing tips; bill pink with
black "lips"; legs pink. Young birds have dark bill and are mottled
with brownish gray above. A dark phase, once considered a separate
species called the "Blue Goose," has bluish-gray upperparts,
brownish underparts, and white head and neck. Blue-phase birds have
spread westward in recent decades and are now found locally
throughout their winter range among the thousands of white Snow
Geese.
Voice
A high-pitched, barking bow-wow! or
howk-howk!
Habitat
Breeds on the tundra and winters in salt
marshes and marshy coastal bays; less commonly in freshwater marshes
and adjacent grainfields.
Nesting
4-8 white eggs in a nest sparsely lined
with down on the tundra. Nests in colonies.
Range
Breeds in Arctic regions of North America
and extreme eastern Siberia. In the West, winters on Pacific Coast
from southern British Columbia south to Baja California; also
mid-Atlantic Coast and Gulf Coast from Mississippi to Texas. In
smaller numbers in interior.
Discussion
Snow Geese migrate long distances,
sometimes flying so high that they can barely be seen. Even at this
distance, however, they can often be identified by the shifting
curved lines and arcs they form as they fly. Hunters call these
birds "Wavies," but not because of the shape of their flocks; the
word is derived from wewe, the Chippewa name for the species. In the
Far North fresh plant shoots are scarce in early spring, but the
geese arrive with good fat reserves, built up from plants consumed
on prairie marshes where they pause during their long spring
migration. Snow Geese graze fields and marshes of Pacific coastal
areas and the Southwest all winter. The largest concentrations are
in California's Central Valley and along the Gulf Coast of Texas and
Louisiana. As they do elsewhere, these birds spend the night resting
on open water.
Duck-like Birds