Appearance:

Adults with white front of head reaching crown, black markings on belly and obvious, swollen yellow eye-ring. Juveniles lacks white forehead and black markings on belly. The yellow eye-ring is also less noticeable. Note that White-fronted Goose may also show faint eye-ring, limited belly-markings and extended white front to head. Leaves a more "pure" impression than White-fronted, with evenly coloured plumage, rounded body, short neck, short bill and steep forehead. Primaries are longer than in other geese, and may extend past tail.

Sound:

Contact call a characteristic, trisyllabic, yelping "ka-dyl-lyt". First syllable often with a goose-like timbre, and second and third a continuous clearer sound, with a rapid lowering of pitch between syllables. Much higher pitched than other grey 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

CC

CC-photo:Stefan Berndtsson, Licence,Link.

CC-photo:Sibylle Stofer, Licence,Link.

CC-photo:Fenners1984, Licence,Link.

CC-sound:Antero Lindholm. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/243944.

Appearance:

Breeding adult easily identified by white tail/rump combined with jet black under wing coverts and silvery upper wing. Immature with brownish back contrasting with pale, silvery upper wings and pale rump. Broad white collar, and lacks dark breast patch of immature Black Tern. Adult winter most liable to confusion with other terns, but upperparts much paler than Black Tern. Contrasting dark outer primaries and secondaries to rest of wing. Often retains some black under coverts even in winter which is diagnostic if seen. Slightly more compact than Black Tern and often recalls Little gull in shape. Bill noticeably shorter and thinner than in Whiskered Tern.

Sound:

Mostly silent away from breeding ground. Most diagnostic call a dry, rolling "krrrrrr-ta-ta" where the rolling is followed by one or two accentuated syllables, or just simply "krrrrrr". Used in excitement.

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

CC-sound:Marco Dragonetti, Licence,Link.

CC-photo:Dick Hoek, Licence,Link.

CC-photo:Lars Buckx, Licence,Link.