Exterior description

The Lesser White -fronted Goose is a small and delicate dark grey goose with a tall white facial blaze and a yellow eye ring. It has a short, pink beak and the belly is striated with black bars. It’s hard to tell the difference between the sexes. In springtime however when the LWfG appears in couples it’s possible to tell who’s male and who’s female by looking at their behavior. The characteristic appearance of a LWfG doesn’t show in a young bird but by the time they reach one year of age both the eye ring and the belly spots usually has appeared.  

The Lesser White -fronted Goose is easily mistaken for the Greater White -fronted Goose. Although the GWfG is, as the name indicate, a much larger goose which lack the yellow eye ring and has more and thicker black bars on the belly. At distance, also other relatives in the Anser family like Greylag goose, Pink-footed goose and Bean goose can be hard to tell from the LWfG, especially in a hunting situation.

The Lesser White- fronted Goose makes a high -pitched, melodic almost whistling sound, cackling “kikyi-kikyi”. In the mountain area this cackling can be heard miles away. The sound is very different from the rougher cackling that comes from a Greater White -fronted Goose.      

In early 20^th century the LWfG population was spread throughout the most northern part of the palearctic area, so from Scandinavia to far east Russia. Today only a few fragmented parts of the population exist.

Ecology- Swedish population

The LWfG usually commit to their partner for life. It takes until two years of age before a female LWfG breed for the first time, but it is not unusual that she waits another year as well. Adult LWfG is very committed to previous breeding sites and juvenile birds are committed to the place where they learnt to fly. Especially young female LWfG is very committed to the place where they learnt to fly, while young males can pair with females from other populations at the winter staging ground.

The breeding area of the LWfG in Sweden is located where the birch forest meets the lower alpine area. They prefer mountain lakes with a mosaic of islands and a lot of birch and willow for protection. Egg laying starts in the middle of May when snow free patches appears and the ice on the lakes are beginning to break. A delay in spring can result in LWfG giving up their breeding attempt. This contributes to big fluctuations in the number of young produced yearly.

The female LWfG incubate her eggs in 25-28 days while the male partner is guarding. After the eggs are hatched, both female and male LWfG helps their young throughout the mountain area by foot. After a bit more than a month the young LWfG are able to fly and in the turn of the month August- September family groups gather for a joint flight south. Families then stick together throughout the entire autumn, winter, and the beginning of spring. That way young LWfG learn migration routes and staging sites from their parents.     

Couples of Lesser White- fronted Goose that was successful in breeding, molt at the breeding area after the eggs have been hatched. Those who has not bred usually gathers in big groups and travels to other sites to molt. Lately in Sweden we have seen big groups of LWfG molting in Lillfjärden Hudiksvall. Studies show that LWfG sometimes chose to fly long distances to find a good molting place. When geese molt, they lose all their wing pens at the same time and are therefore not able to fly. It takes a lot of energy to grow back the feathers so a molting place with good forage and few predators are extremely important.

In the end of March, the first reports of sighted LWfG in Skåne, south of Sweden usually occurs. In the beginning of April, you usually find LWfG in Svartåmynningen in Östergötland. How long they stay there before continuing their journey north usually depends on the weather.

In May, a major part of the Swedish population of LWfG is located in the mountain area but still below the breeding area. They then do flights to probe the breeding area until its snow free and it’s time to start a breeding attempt. In the end of August, they leave the breeding area and stage for a longer time in middle Sweden. In the beginning of October, they usually migrate straight to their wintering sites, mainly in the Netherlands and Germany.