Group of Bar-headed Geese in the shallow water of Denwa River in Satpura, Madhya Pradesh.
The Bar-headed Goose (Anser indicus) is a goose which breeds in Central Asia in colonies of thousands near mountain lakes and winters in South Asia, as far south as peninsular India. It lays three to eight eggs at a time in a ground nest.
The bar-headed goose has sometimes been separated from the genus Anser, which has no other member indigenous to the Indian region, nor any at all to the Ethiopian, Australian, or Neotropical regions, and placed in the monotypic genus Eulabeia.
The bird is pale grey and is easily distinguished from any of the other grey geese of the genus Anser by the black bars on its head. It is also much paler than the other geese in this genus. In flight, its call is a typical goose honking. A mid-sized goose, it measures 71--76 cm (28--30 in) in total length and weighs 1.87--3.2 kg (4.1--7.1 lb).
The summer habitat is high-altitude lakes where the bird grazes on short grass. The species has been reported as migrating south from Tibet, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia before crossing the Himalaya. The bird has come to the attention of medical science in recent years as having been an early victim of the H5N1 virus and HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza), at Qinghai. It suffers predation from crows, foxes, ravens, sea eagles, gulls and others. The total population may be increasing, however it is complex and difficult to assess population trends, as this species occurs over more than 2,500,000 km2 (970,000 sq mi).
The bar-headed goose is one of the world's highest-flying birds, having been seen flying across Mount Makalu -- the fifth highest mountain on earth at 8,481 m (27,825 ft) -- and apparently seen over Mount Everest -- 8,848 m (29,029 ft), although this is a second-hand report with no verification.
Source: Wikipedia
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