Lesser White-fronted Goose

The lesser white-fronted goose is 53–66 centimetres long with a wingspan of 120–135 centimetres, weighing 1.4–2.2 kilograms. It resembles the European subspecies of the greater white-fronted goose in build and colour but is smaller and darker. The white forehead patch reaches higher than in the greater white-fronted goose and ends between the eyes. It also differs in its bright yellow eye-ring, which even young birds develop, first appearing after the juvenile moult in November of the first year and still yellow-green in juvenile plumage. (German Wikipedia, general species account)

It is the rarest goose in Europe. Its breeding range covers the forest tundra of Eurasia, partly the northern forest zone and the south of the shrub tundra. In the winter half of the year it can also be seen in western Europe, with wintering sites in the Near East and Asia Minor, south of the Caspian Sea, on the Nile plain, in southern Japan, Korea and southeast China. Linnaeus first described it in 1758. (German Wikipedia, general species account)