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Bar Headed Goose
Anser indicus
44.6496, -90.187
Field Notes
Description:
The bar-headed goose (Anser indicus) gets its common named from the two bars of brownish-black colored feathers that wrap around the back of its head. This goose has a light grey body, white on its face and neck, orange legs, and bill. Its feet are webbed and it has broad wings. Adults, on average, grow to lengths of 30in and weights of 4lb-6.5lb.
Female bar-headed geese lay 4-6 white eggs per clutch, the eggs require about 27 days to incubate. In the wild, bar-headed geese breed in Central Asia (southeast Russia, northern India and western China) and migrates over the Himalayas to over-winter in India and northern Burma.
Habitat:
ASIA
Every spring, flocks of bar-headed geese--the world's highest-altitude migrants--fly from their winter feeding grounds in the lowlands of India through the Himalayan range, sometimes even directly above Everest, on their way to their nesting grounds in Tibet. Then every fall these birds retrace their route to India. With a little help from tailwinds, they may be able to cover the one-way trip--more than 1,000 miles--in a single day.
Notes:
I have no idea how these birds got to central Wisconsin. The pair was in a park here, thousands of miles from its habitat in Asia. Glad I got a photo, I feel really lucky. They are beautiful. Thanks to CindyBinghamKeiser for help in identifying this goose. I have always been puzzled by it.
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