Anser brachyrhynchus
Length: 28 in Weight: 5 lbs
Identification:
Dark brown head breast, and underwing. Gray back and upperwing. White rump and tail. Pink legs.
Distribution:
Breed in Greenland, Iceland, and Svalbard; winter in northern Europe. Only a rare visitor to the United States, typically along the Northeast coast.
Cool Facts:
The pink-footed goose is one of the avian stars of The Big Year, a movie adaptation of the book by Mark Obmascik which follows three intrepid bird watchers competing over who can spot the most bird species in the United States within a single year. While the movie accurately captures the excitement of serious birders to track down a pink-footed goose (being an exceptionally rare visitor to the US), the fanciful scene in which the goose appears – a hot spring atop a snowy mountain – is entirely fiction. Any pink-footed geese visiting the US would more likely be found browsing out in agricultural fields in the company of many other more common geese.
Make your own bird cookies!
References:
The Big Year According to Birders, Melissa Milgrom, 2011
Bird on the Move 