Adult. Photo: Jerry am Ende/Audubon Photography Awards
Anser caerulescens
| Conservation status | Population of Greater Snows was reduced to only 2,000-3,000 around year 1900, has made satisfactory recovery. Total number of Lesser Snows apparently has increased greatly in recent decades. Population may vary because of Arctic summer weather: in series of exceptionally cold summers, Snow Geese may raise very few young. |
|---|---|
| Family | Ducks and Geese |
| Habitat | Tundra (summer), marshes, grain fields, ponds, bays. In summer on Arctic tundra usually within 5 miles of coast, near lakes or rivers. During migration and winter in coastal marshes, estuaries, freshwater marshes, agricultural country. Greater Snow Goose often nests in higher and drier tundra, and in migration and winter is more often in saltwater habitats than Lesser Snow. |
forages mostly by walking in shallow water or on land. Except when nesting, usually feeds in flocks, sometimes mixed with other kinds of geese.
3-5, sometimes 1-7, rarely 8. Whitish, becoming nest-stained. Incubation is by female only, 22-23 days, up to 25. Young: Usually leave nest within a few hours after hatching; they find their own food, and are tended by both parents. Family group may travel miles on foot away from nest site. Young fledge at 42-50 days.
Usually leave nest within a few hours after hatching; they find their own food, and are tended by both parents. Family group may travel miles on foot away from nest site. Young fledge at 42-50 days.
Almost entirely plant material. Feeds on seeds, leaves, and roots of many species of wild grasses, also of sedges, bulrushes, horsetail, others. Very young goslings may feed on insect larvae. In fall, may eat many berries. Winter flocks often feed on waste grain in agricultural fields.
May mate for life. Usually first breeds at age of 3 years. In one courtship display, male and female face each other and stretch necks upward rapidly and repeatedly in unison. Often nests in colonies. Nest site (selected by female) usually on slight ridge or hummock, with good visibility. Same site may be used more than one season. Nest (built by female, mostly after first egg is laid) is shallow depression filled with bulky bowl of plant material, lined with down.
Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.
Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.
Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.
The decision removes a major hurdle for the Yazoo Pumps, a flood-control structure that will also drain wetlands that host millions of birds each year.
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