Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Articles

Vol. 17 No. 2 (1986)

IDENTIFICATION QUIZ

Submitted
September 13, 2025
Published
April 1, 1986

Abstract

A white goose with a pink bill and feet, and black primaries, should not present much of an identification problem: the choice would be either Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens) or Ross's Goose (C. rossii).

Even so, a single adult individual that spent the winter of 1984–1985 in Upper Newport Bay, Orange County, California, caused a certain amount of consternation for many observers. Those viewing it at a distance—where body size estimates were difficult—noted the longer bill with a prominent “grinning patch” and tended to identify it as a Snow Goose.

References