All species › Waterfowl › Ducks, swans and geese › Greylag Goose
Greylag Goose | Anser anser
Grauwe gans | Ánsar común | Ganso-bravo
The Greylag Goose is the wild ancestor of most European domestic geese. It does not occur naturally in the guide area: the birds seen here are domestic geese on farms, in parks and at lakes, and feral birds descended from them. They mostly live near people and are often fed.
Voice
Loud, blaring cackling, a repeated aahng-ung-ung, like farmyard geese; a hiss when threatened.
Recording: David Darrell-Lambert — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
75–90 cm, a large, heavy goose with a thick, orange to pink bill and flesh-coloured legs. The plumage is greyish brown, with pale fringes to the feathers of the back and wings that give a scaly pattern; the undertail coverts are white. In flight the pale grey forewing stands out. Domestic birds are often heavier, with a low-hanging belly, and may be partly or wholly white. The sexes are alike; the male is slightly larger.
Confusion species
Domestic geese derived from Swan Goose Anser cygnoides have a knob at the base of the bill and a dark stripe down the hindneck; hybrids between the two are frequent. Andean Goose Chloephaga melanoptera is white with black wings and a small, red bill, and lives high in the Andes at lakes and bogs. Muscovy Duck Cairina moschata, also widely kept, is smaller, black or pied, with red, warty skin around the bill.
Habitat
Farmyards, pastures, city parks and lakes and ponds in villages and towns, mainly in the Andes. It grazes grass and seedlings and eats spilled grain and food from people. It nests on the ground, domestic birds often in sheds or on islets in park ponds.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Introduced in the guide area. Records are concentrated in the Andes of Colombia and Ecuador and in southern Bolivia, mainly around towns and farms. Whether a self-sustaining free-living population exists is unclear. Absent from the Galápagos. As a wild bird it breeds in Europe and Asia.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Often seen at park ponds and lakes in and around Andean towns and on farms. With free-ranging geese, look for features of Swan Goose and for hybrids.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Introduced in the guide area; the birds here are domestic or feral and are not regarded as a wild population.
Scientific name
Anser anser | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Anas Anser; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Anser was introduced in 1760 by Brisson. The genus name is from Latin anser, 'goose'. The species name repeats Latin anser, 'goose'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Sweden.