NORTHERN BIRDS | Facts and Details

WATERFOWL

waterfowl in the Bayous of Arkansas

There are over 150 species of waterfowl, including ducks, swans and geese. They typically have webbing between their front three toes for swimming and wide, flat bills with fine serrations on the sides. Most are ground nesters. Chicks are covered with a dense coat of soft, fluffy feathers known as down. Adult birds have soft down underneath their feathers for insulation and waterproofing. This down is used as filling for sleeping bags and down coats.

Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks, geese, and swans. These birds are adapted for swimming, floating on the water surface, and, in some cases, diving in at least shallow water. Anatids are distributed worldwide, and found in every continent except for the Antarctic region. They inhabit aquatic habitats such as lakes, ponds, streams, rivers and marshes. Some taxa inhabit marine environments outside of the breeding season. The family contains around 174 species in 43 genera. [Source: Wikipedia]

Geese and swans are among the heaviest birds. They have long necks and are mostly herbivores. Ducks are smaller, with shorter necks and eat a wider variety of food, ranging from flies to floating algae to fish. Males tend to be colorful while females are drab. Many northern hemisphere species of waterfowl breed in the marshes, lakes and tundra of Alaska, Canada and Siberia and migrate to wintering areas further south. The 15 species of true geese are found mainly in the Arctic and subarctic regions. They are gregarious and can live for a long time (captive birds live up to 50 years). Canadian geese and snow geese belong to this group.

Ducks

There are more than 100 species of duck worldwide. They are among the most successful bird species, doing well in urban areas and the rural countryside as well as well as wilderness ones, with some groups of ducks having hundreds of thousands of members. Technically a duck is a male. Females are called drakes. Young are called ducklings. A group of ducks is sometimes called a “paddling of ducks.”

Siberian birds wintering in Pakistan

Most ducks fall into one of three categories: 1) dabbling ducks, who spend their time near their surface and tilt their bodies so their tail sticks up when they feed; 2) shoveler ducks, who have extra wide spoon-shaped bills with fine combs for filtering out plankton and algae like baleen whales; and 3) diving ducks who disappear completely from the surface when they search for food and pop up some distance away. Shovelers include mallards, pintails and mandarin ducks.

Dabbling ducks (sometimes called marsh ducks) have light bodies and float high in the water. They tend to feed by collecting stuff at the surface, or by upending their bodies and sticking their heads down into the water to reach tender buds or aquatic plants. Seldom do they actually disappear below the surface. They are fairly mobile on land as their legs are positioned forward on their bodies. They do the duck walk when they walk. Their light bodies facilitate easy takeoffs, allowing them to lift directly into the air, like a Harrier jump jet.

Diving ducks (sometimes called bay ducks or marsh ducks) have their legs set far to the back. This is good for diving but makes walking on land and taking off difficult. Their bodies and heavy and compact and they ride low in the water. Their heavy weight is suited again for diving but not for takings off. When they launch themselves from water they first run along the surface of the water to build up enough speed.

Dabblers generally feed on shallow water grasses. They do not normally dive underwater to actively pursue fish or other prey. They are so light that if they dive under water for even a second they pop right back up again. Marsh ducks dive underwater to reach clams or deep aquatic plants. Some even actively chase fish.

Swans

Swans are the largest of all waterfowl. They are generally snowy white, with long graceful necks and a black "mask" around their eyes. There are eight species and they can be found in all the continents except Africa and Antarctica. The northern species are known for their loud calls. Their names— trumpeter, whooper and whistler— reflect this. Swans, geese and ducks are all members of the same family or birds. Swans can be quite large with some standing 1.25 meters (4 feet tall), weighing about 15 kilograms (35 pounds) and boasting a wing span of up to 2.7 meters (8 feet).

In Western culture, the swan is a symbol of beauty and elegance and they look that way when soar in the air and cruise along the surface of the water. But looks can be deceiving: to maintain their graceful glide swans have to paddle their feet hard underwater and take offs and landings takes a great deal of effort and space and even then aborted take offs and crash landings are not uncommon.

A male swan is called a cob. A female is called a pen. Young are called cygnets. A group is used to be called a sloth. Most swans build huge nests. Some trumpeter swan nests even float. Swans are monogamous except when unable to produce offspring and then they may chose new partners. Both sexes help care for the young. Several species carry their cygnets on their backs.

But despite their associations with beauty and love, swans can be quite aggressive and even dangerous (See Below). Rene Lynch wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “Swans have a seemingly placid demeanor, and their monogamous mating habits have long made them a symbol of lasting love. But the creatures are territorial and can be quite aggressive when threatened. This aggression makes them good at driving off geese; it can also lead to tragedy. [Source: Rene Lynch, Los Angeles Times, April 16, 2012]

Geese

Arctic geese of North America: A) emperor goose (A. canagica), B) black brant (B. bernicla nigricans), C) cackling goose (Branta hutchinsii), D) greater white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons), E) lesser snow goose (A. caerulescens caerulescens), and F) Ross’s goose (A. rossii). Not shown: greater snow goose (A. caerulescens atlantica), Canada goose (B. canadensis), and Atlantic brant (B. bernicla hrota), which are very similar to lesser snow goose, Cackling goose, and black brant, respectively

Geese are waterfowl species in the family Anatidae and comprise the genera Anser (grey geese and white geese) and Branta (black geese). Some birds in the Tadorninae subfamily such as Egyptian geese and Orinoco geese are commonly called geese, but are not considered "true geese" taxonomically. A "goose" is a female goose, while a "gander" is a male goose. The term "goose" can be used generically to refer to both sexes but when differentiating between male and female, the male is specifically called a gander. Young geese are called goslings. Geese are known for "imprinting" — deep attachment of goslings towards their mother or guardian. Konrad Lorenz described this behavior as resulting from a gosling's first contact.

Geese are very large for birds and there wild species and domesticated breed. Canada geese are considered the largest geese; they weigh up to 11 kilograms (24.2 pounds), with a wingspan of up to 2.3 meters (7.3 feet). Among domesticated ones, adult Embdens ganders weigh around 13.6 kilograms (30 pounds) with females weighing two to four kilograms (4.4 to 8.8 pounds) less. English gray geese are bigger, China geese a bit smaller, but the gander always heavier.

The writer Paul Theroux raised domesticated geese at his home in Hawaii. He wrote in Smithsonian magazine: I loved the size of geese, their plumpness, their softness, the thick down, the big feet of fluffy just-born goslings, the alertness of geese — sounding an alarm as soon as the front gate opened; their appetites, their yawning, the social behavior in their flocking, their homing instinct, the warmth of their bodies, their physical strength, their big blue unblinking eyes...I have raised Toulouse geese, China geese, Embdens and English grays. Toulouse are usually overwhelmed by the Embdens, which seem to me to have the best memories and the largest range of sounds. Embdens are also the most teachable, the most patient. China geese are tenacious in battle, with a powerful beak, though a full-grown English gray gander can hold its ground and often overcome that tenacity. [Source: Paul Theroux, Smithsonian magazine, December 2006]

Geese develop little routines, favorite places to forage, though they range widely and nibble everything; they get to like certain shady spots, and through tactical fighting, using opportunities, they establish leadership; they stay together, they roam, and even the losers in the leadership battles remain as part of the flock...Their digestive system is a marvel — almost nonstop eating and they never grow fat (Why Geese Don't Get Obese (And We Do) is a recent book on animal physiology); their ability to drink nothing but muddy water with no obvious ill effects; and with this their conspicuous preference for clean water, especially when washing their heads and beaks, which they do routinely. Their calling out to a mate from a distance, and the mate rushing to their side; or if one becomes trapped under a steepness or enmeshed in a fence, and sounds the faint squawk of helplessness, the other will stay by, until it is released. Their capacity to heal seems to me phenomenal — from a dog bite, in the case of one gander I had that was at death's door for more than a month, or from the bite of another gander in one of their ritual battles for supremacy. Such conflicts often result in blood-smeared breast feathers. Their ability to overcome internal ailments is a wonder to behold.

Geese have weird sleeping patterns of geese. They hardly seem to sleep at all. They might crouch and curl their necks and tuck their beaks into their wings, but it is a nap that lasts only minutes. Do geese sleep? is a question that many people have attempted to answer, but always unsatisfactorily. If they are free to ramble at night, geese nap in the day. However domesticated a goose, its wakefulness and its atavistic alertness to danger has not been bred out of it.

Their alliances within a flock, their bouts of aggression and spells of passivity, their concentration, their impulsive, low, skidding flights when they have a whole meadow to use as a runway, the way they stand their ground against dogs or humans — these are all wonders. I find them so remarkable, I would not dream of eating a goose or selling a bird to anyone who would eat it, though I sometimes entertain the fantasy of a goose attacking a gourmet and eating his liver.

Geese Behavior

domesticated geese breeds

Paul Theroux wrote in Smithsonian magazine: I marveled at their varieties of biting and pecking, the way out of sheer impatience a goose wishing to be fed quickly would peck at my toes, just a reminder to hurry up; the affectionate and harmless gesture of pecking if I got too close; the gander's hard nip on the legs, the wicked bite on my thigh, which left a bruise. I also marveled at their memory, their ingeniousness in finding the safest places to nest; their meddling curiosity, always sampling the greenery, discovering that orchid leaves are tasty and that the spiky stalks of pineapple plants are chewable and sweet [Source: Paul Theroux, Smithsonian magazine, December 2006].

During ten years of living among geese and observing them closely, I have come to the obvious conclusion that they live in a goose-centric world, with goose rules and goose urgencies. More so than ducks, which I find passive and unsociable, geese have a well-known flocking instinct, a tendency to the gaggle. This is enjoyable to watch until you realize that if there is more than one gander in the flock, they will fight for dominance, often quite vocally.

Their sounds vary in pitch and urgency, according to the occasion, from wheedling murmurs of reedy ingratiation, along with the silent scissoring of the beak, as they step near knowing you might have food, to the triumphant squawk and wing-flapping of the gander after he has successfully put to flight one of his rivals. In between are the ark-ark-ark of recognition and alarm when the geese see or hear a stranger approach. Geese have remarkable powers of perception (famously, geese warned the Romans of the Gallic invasion in 390 b.c.); the hiss of warning, almost snake-like, the beak wide open, the agitated honk with an outstretched neck, and — among many other goose noises — the great joyous cry of the guarding gander after his mate has laid an egg and gotten off her nest. Ducks quack, loudly or softly, but geese are large eloquent vocalizers, and each distinct breed has its own repertoire of phrases.

There are many more wonders: the way they recognize my voice from anyone else shouting and how they hurry near when called; or follow me because they know I have food in my bulging hand. They will follow me 300 yards, looking eager and hungry. I have mentioned their inexhaustible curiosity — sampling every plant that looks tasty, as well as pecking at objects as though to gauge their weight or their use.

Geese Reproduction and Group Dominance

Paul Theroux wrote in Smithsonian magazine: Spring is egg-laying time. When there is a clutch of ten or a dozen eggs, the goose sits on them and stays there in a nest made of twigs and her own fluffy breast feathers. The goose must turn her eggs several times a day, to spread the heat evenly. Performing this operation hardly means withdrawing from the world, as White suggests. Though a sitting goose has a greatly reduced appetite, even the broodiest goose gets up from her nest now and then, covers her warm eggs with feathers and straw and goes for a meal and a drink. The gander stands vigil and, unusually possessive in his parental phase, fights off any other lurking ganders. When the goslings finally appear, they strike me as amazingly precocious — indeed the scientific word for their condition is precocial, which means they are covered with soft feathers and capable of independent activity almost from the moment of hatching. After a few days they show all the traits of adult behavior, adopting threat postures and hissing when they are fearful. [Source: Paul Theroux, Smithsonian magazine, December 2006]

An established gander will carefully scrutinize new goslings introduced into his flock. It is simply a bewildered gander being a gander, acting out a protective, perhaps paternal possessive response. It is acting on instinct, gauging where the goslings fit in to his society. Their survival depends on it.

The gander takes charge in normal surroundings: it is part of his dominance — keeping other ganders away. He rules by intimidation. He is protective, attentive and aggressive in maintaining his superior position among all the other birds, and will attack any creature in sight, and that includes the FedEx deliveryman way up at the front gate. When young ganders grow up, they frequently challenge the older one. The victor dominates the flock, and the goslings have a new protector. The old gander has merely lost that skirmish and has withdrawn, because he is winded and tired and possibly injured. But win or lose they remain with the flock. Defeated ganders go off for a spell to nurse their wounds, but they always return. One of the most interesting aspects of a flock is the way it accommodates so many different geese — breeds, sexes, ages, sizes. Ganders go on contending, and often an old gander will triumph over the seemingly stronger young one. Only after numerous losing battles do they cease to compete, and then a nice thing happens: the older ganders pair up and ramble around together at the back of the flock, usually one protecting the other.

I had an old, loud China gander that was displaced by a younger gander — his son, as a matter of fact, who ended up with the old goose we named Jocasta. From the time of Adam, we humans have had an urge to name the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field. The old gander may have been defeated by the son, but he remained feisty. Then he became ill, got weak, ate very little, couldn't walk, sat only in shade and moaned. He was immobilized. I dissolved in water some erythromycin I got at the feed store and squirted it down his throat with a turkey baster, and added some more to his water.

Several weeks went by. He lost weight, but I could see that he was sipping from his dish. From time to time I carried him to the pond — he paddled and dipped his head and beak, but he was too weak to crawl out. Still he seemed to respond to this physiotherapy. After a month he began to eat. One morning, going out to give him more medicine, I saw that he was standing and able to walk. I brought him some food, and as I put the food in his dish he took a few steps toward me and bit me hard on the thigh, giving me a purple prune-size bruise. This is not an example of irony or ingratitude. It is goosishness. He was thankfully himself again.

Snow Geese

Snow geese are completely white except for black tips on their wings. They are famous for flying in their high altitude V-formations and sometimes fly 2,600 kilometers (1,600 miles) or more without stopping. During the flight south, snow geese stop from time to time for up to a few days to feed and replenish their energy supplies. They often fly at night and call one another constantly to stay together and not get lost in the dark,

Snow geese establish colonies of hundreds of thousand nesting pairs far enough north to be out of range of animals like stoats, weasels, foxes, wolverines and wolves. The main animal they have to worry about is the Arctic fox. The geese outfox him through sheer numbers. At the nesting sites there are so many eggs and chicks that Arctic foxes can feast on them, while plenty remain to carry on the species.

During the summer adult snow geese stuff themselves with roots of bulrushes and the young eat the tender tips of marsh grass leaves. They eat fast so they have enough stored energy for the long journey south. Because the grass and leaves they eat have relatively little food energy they have to eat a lot. The food is digested quickly and the geese defecate almost as fast as they eat. By the end of summer the four of five chicks are already fledgling.

Arctic Terns

The Arctic tern has the longest migration of any bird. Every year it flies up to 40,000 kilometers (25,000 miles) between the Arctic and the Antarctic and back, with much of the flying done over water. It nests in the Arctic region. When the young are old enough to fly the whole family flies south to Antarctica. The tern’s wings are long and powerful and they can make steady headway even against strong headwinds. In their nesting areas, the terns carefully guard their eggs and young, harassing or attacking anyone or any creature that comes near.

Arctic terns begin their journeys southward from the Arctic in August,.Those that winter in Arctic Canada and Greenland fly across the Atlantic and meet those that have flown south from the Russia Arctic. Some fly to the Cape of Good Hope via West Africa. Others cross the Atlantic again to the east coast of South America and fly south to Cape Horn at the southern tip of Argentina. A third group follows the Pacific coast from Alaska to Chile. All three groups fly to Antarctica. In February they begin flying back north. The total journey is a 25,000-mile round trip. The terns occasionally land on land or the sea or an iceberg for a rest.

Male Arctic terns are big gift givers. They present gifts of small fish to females when they begin pursuing them and continue doing it through courtship and partnership process. They males also present the gifts before each copulation. This ritual shows, some have suggested, that he is a good provider.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated May 2025