BirdTab LogoBirdTab

Barnacle Goose

Branta leucopsis

Least Concern (IUCN Red List)Ducks, Geese, and Waterfowl
Barnacle Goose, photographed by Jimmy K

Photo: Jimmy K · Pexels · Pexels License (licence)

Add to my checklistRange map and sightings on eBird

Call and song

About the Barnacle Goose

Handsome and distinctive. A rather compact and fairly small goose with big white face patch, silvery upperparts, and black neck and breast sharply demarcated from white belly. Breeds mainly in Greenland, Iceland, and Spitsbergen, and locally around the Baltic Sea. Winters in farmland and grassy wetlands mainly in coastal lowlands throughout northern Europe. Free flying feral birds resident locally at lakes and parks in the U.K. In main wintering areas, occurs in hundreds or even thousands; elsewhere, singles and family groups can be found among flocks of other geese. Rare but increasing visitor to northeastern North America, almost always with flocks of Canada Geese.

Species account: eBird.org, fetched 2025-12-26 · How these pages are made

Where it has been recorded

Recorded in 50 of the 253 countries we have eBird lists for. Each opens that country's checklist.

More ducks, geese, and waterfowl