Goose? In East coast of northern China (1 Viewer)

Photo taken by my colleague last year, north of shanghai, yan cheng...

Swan goose? Or ducks?

Thanks in advance.
Jimmy

Could they be Bean Geese?

My thought also.

Bean Geese

Hanno said:

My thought also.

Click to expand...

Definitely look like bean Geese to me, but which race?

They seem quite short-necked so I would go for 'serrirostris'..which I think is also known as Tundra Bean Goose.

See the shots below:

http://www.orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?action=searchresult&Bird_ID=164

http://www.orientalbirdimages.org/s...result&Bird_ID=164&Bird_Family_ID=&pagesize=1

http://www.orientalbirdimages.org/s...result&Bird_ID=164&Bird_Family_ID=&pagesize=1

The serrirostris race is the commoner winterer in Japan and perhaps NE Asia in general.

Sean Minns
Hiroshima, Japan

Bean Geese pass Beidaihe in their thousands.

The two races in China are serrirostris and middendorffi. While they do look short-necked I think it would takea brave man to make the call at this range.

I saw both races together on the ground at Dongting Hu and even then the ID took a bit of work.

MKinHK said:

Bean Geese pass Beidaihe in their thousands.

The two races in China are serrirostris and middendorffi. While they do look short-necked I think it would takea brave man to make the call at this range.

I saw both races together on the ground at Dongting Hu and even then the ID took a bit of work.

Click to expand...

Agreed Mike

I regard myself as pretty brave..but conceed that they could be 'middendorfi' too.

I guess I just put 'serrirostris' because that subspecies is the scarcer of the two species (at least in Japan).

Looking at the pics again it appears that many of the birds are significantly long-necked, and have two other points in favour of 'middendorfi'

1) the vast majority of 'serrirostris' have paler bellies than 'middendorfii' which have duskier bellies and flanks...these birds seem to have duskier bellies,,but could be the light and distance

2) The neck on 'serrirostris' also appears paler at the front than 'middendorfi'...but the birds in the pic don't seem to show that either..but again could be light and distance!

Unfortunately, the bigger, and often more extensively orange bill of 'middendorfi' is not clear in the pic...but of course that would only be visible at close range on the ground and not in flight as you say!

So, brave I may be..but not foolhardy and I will save myself further embarrasment by agreeing the race is not identifiable based on the pic and from what I can see now is actually more likely to be 'middendorfi' than 'serrirostris'!

Ho hum..definitely Bean Goose though I think we are all agreed!

I'd love to see middendorffi Beans. I've seen fotage of them feeding in paddies with those giant bills. Great stuff.