Short-billed goose
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Short-billed geese ( Anser brachyrhynchus ) |
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| Anser brachyrhynchus | ||||||||||||
| Baillon , 1834 |
The short-billed goose ( Anser brachyrhynchus ), also known as the little reed goose , belongs to the field geese ( Anser ) genus within the real geese . It is a breeding bird of the Arctic. The species was first described in 1833 by François Baillon in the Mémoires de la Société royale d'émulation d'Abbeville published in Abbeville in 1834 .
Svalbard's breeding birds overwinter in Central Europe. They can be seen in the Netherlands as well as Belgium and, in harsh winters, also on the coast of northern France. In the Central European inland they are rare wanderers. In Bavaria, for example, up to 21 individuals of this species were observed in twenty-eight years between 1900 and 1980.
Appearance
The short-billed goose looks very similar to the bean goose ( Anser fabalis ), from which it is outwardly distinguished mainly by the pink and non-orange feet, the gray, otherwise gray-brown striped plumage on the back, the darker head and the slightly shorter and with one beak with a pink band. With a weight of about 2.5 to 3.5 kilograms, its body length averaging 66 centimeters and a wingspan of about 1.30 to 1.70 meters, it is also slightly smaller than this.
Wild birds pass through the wing moult in mid-July. This falls at a time when the gössel have hatched from the eggs for around two to three weeks. The adult birds are then unable to fly for about 25 days. The moulting of the small plumage and the control feathers then follows.
The downy chicks have a very variable plumage. But they are usually brown on top and also have a brown crown and a brown eye spot. On the underside of the body, they are whitish to greenish-yellow. Some individuals lack this yellowish tinge. At the time of hatching, the beak is gray-black with a pink to cream-colored nail. The feet, legs and webbed feet are dark gray. By the time the young short-billed geese fledge, only the base and tip of the beak are gray-black. Otherwise the beak is flesh-colored. The feet and webbed feet are gray-pink. The iris is brown.
voice
The short-billed goose is a very vocal goose. Their calls are higher in pitch than those of the greylag goose. They can be confused with those of the white-fronted goose or the pygmy goose . In flight they usually let out a two- to three-syllable ag-ag or glick glick . Short-billed geese that feel threatened can be heard clearly sibilant.
distribution
Short-billed geese are migratory birds that sometimes join other species of geese when migrating . Their winter quarters is on the British Isles , in Belgium and the Netherlands , in the coastal areas of northern Germany and Denmark , while their breeding areas for wintering in Britain birds in Greenland and Iceland , there especially in the drainage area of Hofsjökull else (glacier), on Spitsbergen are . They are very rarely found in inland Europe.
Stray visitors can also be seen occasionally in the Canadian provinces of Québec and Newfoundland.
habitat
In winter, the short-billed geese live in meadows, floodplains, but also on pastures. In their summer breeding area, they live in large colonies, some of them over 400 m high, in rocky areas with little vegetation and swamps, bogs and lakes created by early summer glacier melt , and often also cooled lava fields on Iceland . River islands also serve as protection against predators such as the arctic fox .
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nutrition
In their breeding area, the geese feed on the arctic flora, which grows lush in summer, especially on the leaves and buds of knotweed , meadowfoam , dandelion or cranesbill , in winter on all available herbs and grasses, and also on the products of modern agriculture. The agriculturally grown plants that short-billed geese eat include potatoes. This eating habit developed in the 19th century when it was common in a number of regions to plant wheat as a successor to potatoes. Wheat is one of the traditional food crops of short-billed geese and the first potatoes, the short-billed geese, will have been those that were left behind from the previous potato harvest and have become hard due to the frost. This made the potatoes soft and enabled the geese to change their diet. The first report that short-billed geese invaded fields where no wheat was grown as secondary crops comes from Lancashire in 1890. Today, potatoes are one of the main food crops of short-billed geese that winter in Great Britain.
Reproduction
The breeding season of the short-billed goose begins around the beginning of June, after the flocks have arrived in their breeding area in mid-May and have sometimes formed loose colonies there. The nest can be found on the edge of ravines, cliffs and rocky slopes or on islands in rivers. Short-billed geese only breed occasionally in the open tundra. They are basically colony breeders who usually use the same nesting sites multiple times.
The female lays about 3 to 7 smooth white eggs in the high-lying nest , which is lined with soft down feathers , which are then incubated by him for a good three and a half weeks. The laying interval is about 24 hours. The male does not take part in the breeding business, but guards his brood and partner. The hatched young animals flee the nest and fledge after about two months. When the adult birds moult and are unable to fly in July , they form distinct herds together with their fellow species. The joint return flight to the wintering areas begins in August. The young usually start hatching and rearing their young themselves in their third year of life.
Individual references, literature and web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bauer et al., P. 62
- ↑ Alderfer, p. 4
- ↑ Kolbe, p. 105
- ↑ Hans-Heiner Bergmann; Hans-Wolfgang Helb; Sabine Baumann; The voices of the birds of Europe - 474 bird portraits with 914 calls and chants on 2,200 sonograms , Aula-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-89104-710-1 , p. 43
- ↑ Alderfer, p. 4
- ↑ Janet Kear: Man and Wildfowl , T & AD Poyser, London 1990, ISBN 0856610550 , p. 200
- ↑ Janet Kear: Man and Wildfowl , T & AD Poyser, London 1990, ISBN 0856610550 , p. 201
- ↑ Collin Harrison and Peter Castell: Field Guide Bird Nests, Eggs and Nestlings , HarperCollins Publisher, revised edition from 2002, ISBN 0007130392 , p. 65
literature
- Jonathan Alderfer (Ed.): Complete Birds of North America , National Geographic, Washington DC 2006, ISBN 0-7922-4175-4 .
- Hans-Heiner Bergmann , Helmut Kruckenberg & Volkhard Wille: Wild geese - travelers between wilderness and pastureland. G. Braun Verlag, Karlsruhe 2006.
- Hans-Günther Bauer, Einhard Bezzel and Wolfgang Fiedler (eds.): The compendium of birds in Central Europe: Everything about biology, endangerment and protection. Volume 1: Nonpasseriformes - non-sparrow birds. Aula-Verlag Wiebelsheim, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-89104-647-2 .
- T. Bartlett: Ducks And Geese - A Guide To Management. The Crowood Press, 2002, ISBN 1-852236507 .
- Hartmut Kolbe: The world's ducks. Ulmer Verlag 1999, ISBN 3-8001-7442-1 .
- Madsen, J., G. Cracknell & Tony Fox (1999): Goose Populations of the Western Palearctic, Wetlands International, Wageningen.
- Josep del Hoyo ; Andrew Elliott & Jordi Sargatal (Eds.): Handbook of Birds of the World . Volume 1: Ostrich to Ducks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 1992, ISBN 84-87334-10-5 .
- Bradley C. Livezey: A phylogenetic analysis of recent anseriform genera using morphological characters. Auk 103 (4): 737-754. PDF in English
- Erich Rutschke: Wild geese, way of life - protection - use , Berlin: Parey, 1997
- Richard Sale: A Complete Guide to Arctic Wildlife , published by Christopher Helm, London 2006, ISBN 0-7136-7039-8 .
Web links
- Anser brachyrhynchus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 30 of 2009.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Anser brachyrhynchus in the Internet Bird Collection
- Short-billed goose feathers