What kind of goose is white

Notice the general similarity in pattern to White-front, but a completely different shape and size. Domestic geese are bred to be big and provide a lot of meat, hence they are very bulky. Their necks are thick, their bodies are very bulky with extreme bellies on land and a big butt on the water. Their bills tend to be thickened at the base behind the nostrils. Compare this face with a real Greater White-fronted Goose and you'll see a quite different profile.

Domestic geese can be any color between completely gray wild type to completely white, but they are always big and blocky with a different bill shape. Another species of goose that has been domesticated is the Swan Goose, native to eastern Eurasia and sometimes called a Chinese goose.

A domestic swan goose usually has a large knob at the base of the bill the wild form lacks this. It also can show a white patch behind the bill. It varies from wild type coloring mostly gray with a dark line down the back of the otherwise white neck to pure white.

Notice the white "front" behind the bill, but the bill is very swollen at the base. Occasionally you will find a domestic goose with a thin, more natural bill size, like this one we saw in the large Canada flock off of Union Springs, NY on 24 February Its head and bill could be easily confused with those of a Snow Goose, but again this is a large, blocky goose with a thick neck.

In North America, there are three different species of "white geese": the Ross's goose, greater snow goose, and lesser snow goose. The fall migration begins in the Arctic, where the birds breed. Ross's geese create their own in-flight spectacles. The birds' short necks and reddish-purple caruncles at the base of their bill distinguish them from the other light geese. Melanin, a pigment concentrated in the wing tips of light geese, produces the black coloration and increases the primary flight feathers' structural strength and resistance to wear.

Snow and blue geese were once thought to be separate species. The Birds of North America, No. Poole and F. Gill, eds. Robinson J. An Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Tennessee.

Tennessee Press, Knoxville. Skip to Main Content. Go to TN. Print This Page. Go to Search. Wildlife Birds Greater White-fronted Goose. Video by AviBirds. Males and females look the same.