Bar-headed Goose

The bar-headed goose is a mid-sized pale grey goose, 71–76 cm long and weighing 1.87–3.2 kg, told from all other grey geese of the genus Anser by the black bars on its otherwise white head. Its flight call is a typical goose honk. It breeds in Central Asia in colonies of thousands near mountain lakes, nesting mainly on the Tibetan Plateau north to Mongolia, and lays three to eight eggs in a ground nest (Wikipedia, general species account).

It winters in South Asia, as far south as peninsular India, and is known for the extreme altitudes it reaches when migrating across the Himalaya; a 2011 study found geese peaking at about 6,400 m. Physiologists have long puzzled over why they fly so high when lower passes exist. SoIB 2023 rates it a Moderate conservation priority: a winter migrant and localised summer migrant of wetlands with a Large range, an inconclusive long-term trend of about −33% and a current decline of nearly 3% a year (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).