Description 25-31" (64-79 cm). Smaller than
the domestic goose. Pure white with black wing tips; bill pink
with black "lips"; legs pink. Young birds have dark bill
and are mottled with brownish gray above. A dark phase, once considered
a separate species called the "Blue Goose," has bluish-gray
upperparts, brownish underparts, and white head and neck. Blue-phase
birds have spread westward in recent decades and are now found
locally throughout their winter range among the thousands of
white Snow Geese.
Voice A high-pitched, barking bow-wow! or howk-howk!
Habitat Breeds on the tundra and winters in salt marshes and marshy
coastal bays; less commonly in freshwater marshes and adjacent
grainfields.
Nesting 4-8 white eggs in a nest sparsely lined with down on the
tundra. Nests in colonies.
Range Breeds in Arctic regions of North America and extreme eastern
Siberia. In the West, winters on Pacific Coast from southern British
Columbia south to Baja California; also mid-Atlantic Coast and
Gulf Coast from Mississippi to Texas. In smaller numbers in interior.
Discussion Snow Geese migrate long distances,
sometimes flying so high that they can barely be seen. Even at
this distance, however,
they can often be identified by the shifting curved lines and
arcs they form as they fly. Hunters call these birds "Wavies," but
not because of the shape of their flocks; the word is derived
from wewe, the Chippewa name for the species. In the Far North
fresh
plant shoots are scarce in early spring, but the geese arrive
with good fat reserves, built up from plants consumed on prairie
marshes
where they pause during their long spring migration. Snow Geese
graze fields and marshes of Pacific coastal areas and the Southwest
all winter. The largest concentrations are in California's Central
Valley and along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana. As they
do elsewhere, these birds spend the night resting on open water.
