Emperor Goose

How to identify

Field marks

1. Body blue-gray with black-and-white scaling
2. Head and nape white with an amber-yellow wash
3. Chin and throat black
4. Bill pink, tail white

Male, female and young

Male body length 66–71 cm; female slightly smaller. Young juvenile has a dusky head and neck, becoming adult-like in plumage and appearance by the first winter.

Voice

Call sounds like “kla-ha, kla-ha, kla-ha”, more nasal than those of other geese.

Similar species

Snow Goose

Snow Goose has white extending onto the front of the neck and a black-and-white underwing; Emperor Goose lacks white on the front of the neck and has a gray underwing.

Where and when it's recorded

Busiest months: June · Most records: United States, United Kingdom, Russia

Emperor Goose has been recorded at 42 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 10 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. GambellUnited States1,143 records
2. St. Paul IslandUnited States540 records
3. Bodega Bay – harbor and immediate vicinityUnited States45 records

Countries and regions with the most records

United StatesUnited KingdomRussiaCanadaNetherlandsBelgiumPolandChina

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The emperor goose (Anser canagicus), also known as the beach goose or the painted goose, is a waterfowl species in the family Anatidae, which contains the ducks, geese, and swans. In summer, the emperor goose is found in remote coastal areas near the Bering Sea in arctic and sub-arctic Alaska and the Russian Far East, where it breeds in monogamous pairs. It migrates south to winter in ice-free mudflats and coasts in Alaska, mostly the Aleutian Islands, and Canada's British Columbia, rarely reaching the contiguous United States.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions