Greylag Goose

Latin Name: 
Anser anser
Category: 
Ducks, Geese
Size: 
50cm
Description: 

Sexes alike. Grey-brown plumage; pink bill, legs and feet; white uppertailcoverts, lower belly and tip to dark tail; in flight, pale leading edge of wings and white
uppertail-coverts distinctive. Gregarious and wary; flocks on jheels and winter cultivation; rests for most of day and feeds during night, on water and on agricultural land, especially freshly sown fields. The Bar-headed Goose A. indicus breeds in Ladakh and winters in subcontinent.

Habitat: 
jheels, winter cultivation.
Food: 
grass, shoots of winter crops like gram and wheat; aquatic tubers.
Distribution: 
winter visitor; early October to mid- March; most common in N India, across the Gangetic plain to Assam, Orissa; south to N Gujarat; Madhya Pradesh; rarer south.
Call: 
Call Description: 
domestic goose-like, single-note honk, often uttered several times, loud and ringing; typical geese gaggles when feeding.
IUCN: 
Least Concern
National Status: 
Widespread winter visitor
At IITK: 
sparse winter visitor