Lesser White-fronted Geese

Lesser White-fronted Goose Anser erythropus

Here in the UK Lesser White-fronted Goose is mainly known as a frequent escapee from wildfowl collections, but genuinely wild birds do turn up - or at least have turned up - on occasion. The European wild population of Lesser White-fronted Geese has declined massively, but since 2005 has been perked up by reinforcement involving birds released from a captive breeding programme in Sweden. It is quite likely that some of the recent "wild" birds in the UK have involved birds from this programme.

presumed escaped Lesser White-fronted Goose (with Greylag and Canada Geese), Burnham Norton (Norfolk, UK), 29th April 2011

Some captive adult Lesser White-fronted Geese show a much reduced white 'front', not extending back along the top of the crown as they usually do. This may be a result of past hybridisation with Greater White-fronted Goose (or I suppose other Anser sp.) but it isn't entirely clear to me that these birds are necessarily hybrids. Perhaps it is one of those anomalies that crops up in captive/feral populations as a result of in-breeding, rather than hybridisation? First-generation hybrids between Lesser White-fronted Goose and Greater White-fronted Goose can be very dark, much darker than either parent species, and this darkness comes through in several other hybrids involving one or other of the White-fronted Geese.

captive Lesser White-fronted Geese, Blakeney Quay collection (Norfolk, UK), 11th May 2006

This bird with Taiga Bean Geese was widely considered to be a 'wild' vagrant, though whether that means it was of truly wild stock or via the captive breeding programme in Sweden is much less clear.

presumed vagrant Lesser White-fronted Goose (with Taiga Bean Goose), Buckenham (Norfolk, UK), 2nd January 2012