Appearance:

A big, brownish, black and white goose. Differs from Barnacle Goose by a light brownish breast and a more brownish body. Base of bill and forehead black. White tail-coverts but black tail-feathers, and uniformly dark brown wings. Generally gives a large and long-necked impression, but different subspecies shows a lot of variation.

Sound:

Trumpet like, resonant, honking sounds. Closer to Whooper Swans than many of the other geese.

Contact call:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Sounds:Recorded by Paul Driver,http://www.xeno-canto.org ,CC license

Appearance:

Very similar to Common Swift, and often difficult to identify in the field. Seeing the birds against a darker background, as opposed to the sky, brings out some of the characters more clearly. Generally paler and more sandy brown than Common Swift. Differs further from C. Swift by: Rounder wing tip (outermost primary shorter than the next), slightly broader wings, broader and flatter head. White throat patch bigger and more prominent. The face seems paler, which brings out the dark eye-mask. Back slightly darker than upper part of wings. More contrast between outer and inner primaries. Underparts with more pronounced scaly pattern. Flight less acrobatic, with slightly slower wing-beats, more frequent gliding and much less twinkling turns.

Sound:

Similar to Common Swift, but usually very helpful for ID. Almost di-syllabic, with marked accent on second syllable which rapidly drops in pitch, "srrrree-aah". Common swift has a more even call, with accents on first part, without the sudden pitch-drop.

Contact call:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

CC

Sound recording:Creative Commons,www.xeno-canto.org,Carlos W.,http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/