Bar-headed Goose Anser indicus (Latham, 1790)
Chew Valley Lake © Nigel Milbourne 2019
Rare, feral escapee. May occur in any month.
There have been instances of Bar-headed x Snow Goose hybrids occurring at the lakes and I have photographed some (see below) that I initially thought were Bar-headed Geese until I received an email from Joern Lehmhus who was putting together a paper on the ‘problem’ of Bar-headed Goose hybrids, and wanted to use my 2010 picture, taken at Blagdon Lake, as an example of the aforementioned hybrid. One of the key features of this hybrid is the shape and colour of the scapulars and tertials. Note the hybrid shows pointed feathers, with white-fringed, dark-centred feathers, as opposed to square tipped, grey feathers. I’m not totally sure that the bird at the head of the page is a pure Bar-headed Goose either, as there are probably back-crosses among the birds that occur locally. I will dig out some pictures of Bar-headed Geese I’ve taken at Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, in India, to see if any of those will be suitable to replace the picture at the head of the page in due course.
Bar-headed Goose
Bar-headed Goose x Snow Goose hybrid
Bibliography (sources of information):
- Reeber, S., Wildfowl of Europe, Asia and North America, Helm, 2015.
Last update: 18th December 2024