Answers & solutions

Check your answers against our explanations. Remember, there are no ‘trick’ birds or extreme rarities among these...

BIRD 1

Here is a group of three, slightly nervous looking geese, with a bunch of similar-looking geese in the background. Let’s concentrate on the closer three, though. The brown and grey feathering immediately suggests that these are ‘grey geese’ in the genus Anser. The bills are a good starting point, in this case looking pretty small, even ‘cute’. The bill patterns vary, but they are all combinations of black and pink. The head and shortish neck are brown, contrasting with the ‘frosty-looking’ blue-grey back and wing feathers (interspersed with brown). The broad white band on the tails confirms these are Pink-footed Geese (much less white on a bean goose).

• Small ‘cute’ bill is black and pink

• Brown head and neck

• ‘Frosty’ blue-grey back and wings

• Broad white in outer margins of tail

BIRD 2

This pair of geese has black bills, heads, necks and breasts (and flight feathers). They are ‘black geese’ of the genus Branta. That combination of black head and breast, without the white face of a Barnacle Goose, should lead you to Brent Goose. Longer-necked Canada Geese have pale breasts and a white chin patch. The Brent ID is confirmed by the birds’ shape and the ‘dark at front, white at rear’ pattern, and the white line on the neck. We can also say they are pale-bellied Brent Geese, rather than of the more widespread dark-bellied race. In the UK, pale-bellied Brents winter in Northern Ireland and in isolated areas like on the Northumberland coast.

• ‘Black at front, white at rear’

• Black bill, head, short neck, and breast

• White line on neck side

• Extensively pale flanks of race hrota

BIRD 3

You can almost hear the distinctive honking call of this goose as it flies by. It should present no real hardship to identify from this photograph, being a very familiar sight across the UK, despite virtually the entire population being derived from (originally) introduced stock. The long black neck, black head and bill and white chin patch make ID easy. Even at a great distance, the pale breast is distinctive, making this species easy to pick out and confidently identify in flight, on the water, or on land. Other distinctive features of this bird are the all black tail, the brown underwings and the creamy-brown underparts. This is, of course, a Canada Goose.

• Black large bill, head and long neck

• Pale breast unlike other Branta geese

• Creamy under