White-fronted Goose

The White-fronted Goose Anser albifrons is a goose closely related to the smaller Lesser White-fronted Goose (A. erythropus). In North America it is known as the Greater White-fronted Goose.

The race albifrons breeds in the far north of Europe and Asia, and winters further south and west in Europe.

The Greenland race flavirostris has a yellow bill and more streaking on its belly. It winters in Ireland and Scotland. It is sometimes considered a separate species from albifrons.

The White-fronted Goose, as well as being larger, lacks the yellow eye-ring of Lesser White-fronted Goose, and the white facial blaze does not extend upwards so far as in that species.

Both white-fronted species have a very conspicuous white face and the broad black bars which cross the belly, though the last two characters are occasionally observable to some extent in the Greylag Goose, which, however, has the bill and legs flesh-coloured, and the upper wing-coverts of a bluish-grey.

White-fronts have bright orange legs and mouse-coloured upper wing-coverts. They are smaller than greylags.