Goose species, Great Livermere, Suffolk, England (1 Viewer)

[Jonny Rankin]

Evening,

Any thoughts on the attached gratefully received

White-front? White-front x Greylag, Pinky x Greylag?

With thanks in advance :t:

Jonny

 

[TringBirder]

Greylags often show white around the bill like these birds - no reason to suspect hybrid influence.

 

[captaincarot]

looks like the one with the whte round it's beak has a considerably more delicate beak than the greylags round it

and it may just be a trick of the light in the pic but it seems to have a darker head also

 

[mäkpe]

Might well be a A.albifrons x anser. For me it seems to be rather dark headed, short billed and a little short necked compared to greylacks. Also the bill seems to be more like pink than orange but this might be a photogarphic artefact.

So i would go for hybrid rather than "just" a Greylag.

 

[Clive A]

Greylag x Pinkfoot?

 

[mäkpe]

I can't see anything pointing towards pink-footed. Dark brown head and white "front" suits good for G W-f hybrid.

 

[Jonny Rankin]

Greylag x Pinkfoot?

Hi Clive,

Your the 3rd person to suggest pinky. There is at least one pinky of unknown origin in a nearby geese flock - so it could be!

Cheers,

Jonny

 

[Jonny Rankin]

looks like the one with the whte round it's beak has a considerably more delicate beak than the greylags round it

and it may just be a trick of the light in the pic but it seems to have a darker head also

It does indeed have a darker head / neck.

Thanx for your comments :t:

 

[Jonny Rankin]

I can't see anything pointing towards pink-footed. Dark brown head and white "front" suits good for G W-f hybrid.

Cheers Makpe,

G x W-f seems to be the favourite answer of those I've shown... it's an incredible feral flock - aswell as the occasional pink-foot there is also a resident Snow Goose!!

As yet I havent seen any x Snow Goose hybrids tho

Cheers,

Jonny

 

[Adam W]

WF x Greylag for me, as said already some amount of white on Greylags isnt unusual but this seems to show a bit too much and certainly has a more delicate whitefront like bill. Cant see where a Pinky would fit in,the darker brown haed/neck fits WF.

 

[Tideliner]

I suspect its a white fronted goose hybrid. The while edged scapulars\secondaries suggets it could be with a snow goose. Difficult to say for sure withn angle of sunlight , but the undersides seem very white. Cant see any greylag in the goose at all.

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

This is indeed not a straightforward hybrid.

white-edged tertials, secondaries and coverts resemble snow goose hybrids, but less pronounced than in normal first generation hybrids.


Hybrids snow x greater whitefront have white areas on face and belly. also the bill of the mystery bird looks too small and differently shaped for this hybrid. also in allc ases of this hybrid i have seen so far the bill was pink.

i have never knowingly seen pinkfoot x greylag, but wouldn´t expect this combination to show white on the base of the bill.

I have seen hybrids greylag x greater whietfront, and those show less white than the whitefront on the base of the bill, and the bill itself is intermediate ..

and so on... meaning I do not know yet any two species combinations looking like this.

the only birds that i have seen with some similarity to this , but not identical, were the offspring of a snow x emperor goose hybrid with either greylag or greater whitefront.

so I am wondering if this is a so called trigen, a three species cross, involving perhaps snow goose, a whitefront and something else????

 

[stevethehydra]

Could A. albifrons x a "piebald" feral/domestic A. anser explain it?

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

Hi Steve,

in my experience that seems unlikely, bill shape and size seems different from what i would expect then, and there are no white patches anywhere. also it would not explain the tertials and secondaries marked white borders, i think...

I guess this will stay a difficult bird and probably unidentifiable even with more photos....