Blue Goose Information

Ornithologists considered the blue goose a separate species from the snow goose at one time, notes the "National Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds." However, they now realize that the blue goose is simply a blue phase of the white snow goose. The snow goose is the most common goose in Canada, states the Hinterland Who's Who website. Over five million snow geese, including many of the blue variety, breed on the tundra and spend winters in parts of the United States.

  1. Size

    • The blue goose is a medium-sized type of goose, with lengths averaging from 27 inches to almost 33 inches. The blue goose can weigh from 56 oz. to 116 oz., with males being slightly larger than the females are, which from a distance becomes the only way to tell the sexes apart. The blue goose owns a wingspan of as much as 54 inches.

    Identification

    • The blue phase of the snow goose will feature a white head, but the feathers on its sides and lower back have a blue tint to them. The remainder of the bird's body may be nearly white or it can be a darker shade of brown-gray. An orange face on this goose is a common sight, because of the facial plumage stained from iron deposits where the blue goose finds much of its food.

    Young Blue Geese

    • The little goslings of the blue phase will be almost black, as opposed to the yellowish young of the white phase snow goose. The blue phase goslings change to gray with the tips of the wings possessing a black color, much the same as the young of the white phase do. Many of these blue phase birds will have a slightly darker shade of gray, with lighter feathers near the throat and the chin. The gray color is all but gone when the goslings are almost one year old the next spring.

    Behavior

    • The blue goose flies so high when it migrates south that they are very hard to spot up in the sky. The diet of the blue goose includes only plants, with the birds feeding on grains and aquatic vegetation. Blue geese mate for life, with the species differing from most types of waterfowl in that they nest in huge colonies, with as many as 5,000 pairs of breeding geese in a small area. While the female goose sits on the eggs, the male patrols the area to ward off potential danger.

    Genetics

    • The blue goose has its color determined by one gene, reports the Cornell Lab of Ornithology site. The dark gene has partial domination over the gene for white feathers, so that when a dark phase blue goose mates with one that is white, their babies will turn out blue. While a white snow goose that mates to another white goose will have all white babies, two blue phase geese that mate can sometimes produce a few white offspring.