The Bar Headed Goose

Description

Context: In an unfolding avian-flu crisis, a substantial number of these high-altitude birds, which descends on this wetland every winter and adds to its charm have perished along with other bird species.

Bar Headed Geese

One of the highest-flying birds of the world, the Bar Headed Goose has been sighted flying above Mount Everest.
They are high-altitude birds breeding in the high places, but during winter, they come down.
They nest mainly on the Tibetan Plateau.
The bar-headed goose migrates over the Himalayas to spend the winter in parts of South Asia (from Assam to as far south as Tamil Nadu.

Bar Headed Geese

The bird seems to have established Pong Dam Lake, as the ‘capital’ of its winter kingdom, year after year, as sights of crowded flocks of Bar Headed Geese, squatting beak-to-tail, are not uncommon.
The wetland is said to hold the record for hosting the largest congregation of Bar-headed Geese.

Range

The Bar-Headed Goose has an extremely large range and can be found in Afghanistan, Bangladesh Bhutan, China, India; Mongolia; Myanmar; Nepal; Pakistan; Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
They have also been introduced to Canada and Spain.

Habitat

These geese prefer high altitude mountain lakes.

Population

Global: Their world population is very large with at least 10,000 mature individuals. Their global population appears to be declining but none of their sub-populations are severely fragmented.

Status