The pink-footed goose is a medium-sized goose with a small head and bill. It breeds in Greenland, Iceland, and Svalbard with the Greenland and Iceland population wintering in the UK, and the Svalbard population in the Netherlands and Denmark. The population of pink-footed geese has risen dramatically over the last 50 years mainly due to protection from shooting on its wintering grounds. Wintering flocks can hold tens of thousands of birds and damage to crops can be severe, although they can also help prevent the spread of disease by eating leaves and roots left behind after the crop has been harvested.
Wintering birds: 360,000
Family: Ducks, Geese, And Swans
Adult pink-footed geese have a pale grey-brown body with a white belly, vent, and rump. The tail is grey with a broad white terminal band. The flight feathers are dark grey and the wing coverts are pale slate-grey. Their flanks are dark brown with darker brown and black vertical streaks and a white line on the upper flanks.
The head and upper neck is dark brown and the bill is pink with a black tip and base. They have dark brown eyes and pink legs and webbed feet.
Both sexes have similar plumage but the male is larger than the female.
Juvenile pink-footed geese resemble the adult but they are browner and smaller with a scaly pattern on the upperparts. The bill and legs are duller and sometimes yellow in colour.
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Pink-footed geese breed in May and June and produce 1 brood a season. They are monogamous and form pair-bonds for life. They nest in small loose colonies of about 10 pairs on cliffs, rocky outcrops, riverbanks and lake islets in open arctic tundra. The nest is a scrape in the ground lined with soft plant matter and down.
Pink-footed geese lay 3-6 cream, pale green, or pale yellow eggs which are incubated by the female alone for 25-28 days. The male will guard at some distance.Chicks are precocial and covered in brown and yellow down and are reared by both parents. They fledge at about 50-60 days after hatching and are sexually mature at 3 years.
Pink footed geese feed on plant matter such as leaves, stems, berries, seeds, moss, sedges, and lichen. During winter they will also eat grain, vegetables, grasses, cereals, potatoes, beets, rape, and other crops.
Pink footed geese arrive for the winter in September and leave in April. They can be found in estuaries, coastal marshes, and lakes on the east Scottish coast and the north and east of England. They can also be spotted on farmland where they go to feed during the day.
Pink-footed geese have a large carbon footprint due to them digging the soil in the Arctic in search of food which releases carbon from the ground.
