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Hi James,
Michael mentioned why these birds are surely adults. A juvenile A. indicus would also have a dark back part of the neck, going up til the back of the head; whereas these 3 birds have " the white back neck area of Emperor goose above the neck pattern of Bar-headed goose". I hope this is understandable?
Hi Jaap,
I never saw , heard or read about a variant in neck pattern of A. indicus juveniles, so I assumed I can exclude that possibility.
Hi Michael,
Emperor goose is not the commonest goose in captivity in Germany, but fairly common (every zoo I visited inthe last years had at least a few, sometimes with young and you also see them at waterfowl keepers or breeders-Ross goose and snow goose seem to be more uncommon here). Also in the Netherlands, Emperor geese occur in private collections; and as Jaap mentions there were escaped individuals around in the area. So I think it is likely ; together with some features common in emperor goose hybrids-for example dark feathers in the white area around the tail- you see this characteristic in both photographs.
Joern
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