Contact | Sitemap | Updates | Facebook
Contact | Updates | Facebook

Red-breasted Goose Branta Ruficollis

PREV Wildfowl List NEXT

Red-breasted Goose

Appearance: - The Red-breasted Goose has dark sooty black upperparts, neck, face, and throat with white patches between the eye & beak, white stripes behind the eye & neck, white band encircling the forebody, and distinctive chestnut-red on cheeks, foreneck, and breast. Tail coverts are white and the tail black. Legs, feet, and beak are grey-black. Both sexes look similar.

Size: - Typical Adult is 53-56cm (21-22in).

Food: - Grasses, wheat, barley, and maize.

Habitat/Range: - Tundra, wooded tundra, and lakes in northern Siberia. Winters around the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan, Iran & Iraq and the Black Sea in Romania, Bulgaria & Turkey.

Red-breasted Goose Map
Breeding Habitat/Resident,    Migration or Winter Area.



Breeding Season: - From early June.

Eggs: - 3 to 8 (creamy-white with greenish-tinge).

Notes: - The Red-Breasted Goose belongs to the Branta genus (Black Geese). It has declined in numbers over the last few decades. Over 80% of the population roost during the winter at just five sites, with nearby feeding areas threatened by changes in land use. These Geese breed in northern Siberia and often build their nests close to birds of prey such as the Snowy Owl, Peregrine, and Buzzard to keep themselves protected from predators such as the Arctic fox. During the 1950s the high use of pesticides used resulted in the decline of the Peregrine that helped protect these geese during the breeding season.

Conservation status (IUCN 3.1):
  Endangered.  

Classification: - Family: Anatidae,
Subfamily: Anserinae, Genus: Branta.

Red-breasted Goose video:


Wildfowl (Alphabetical order):
A-B    C-F    G-L    M-R    S-Z   





Photographs

Red-breasted Goose
Red-breasted Goose (Branta Ruficollis)





Links