Your Birding Month

Find out why we’ve chosen the Tundra Bean Goose as our Bird of the Month!

Once upon a time, when many of us were starting out as birdwatchers, certain birds were lumped together. Redpolls were just Redpolls, Rock Pipits and Water Pipits were considered one species, and even Pink-footed Goose and Bean Goose were considered separate subspecies of the same goose. Times have changed and ‘splitting’ has been in vogue for some time. So, Pink-footed Goose was considered separate from Bean Goose.

But times have changed still more, and now we don’t talk about Bean Goose as one species, but consider Taiga Bean Goose and Tundra Bean Goose to be different species (and an instant ‘armchair tick’ for many, if you like that sort of thing).

January’s Bird of the Month is the smaller of the two Beans, with a shorter neck and a shorter bill, altogether more like its close relative, the Pink-footed Goose. We only tend to get fewer than 400 in the UK each winter, so they are prized ‘ finds’ and great birds to kick start a #My200BirdYear list!

Tundra Beans are slightly larger than Pinkfeet, with longer, deeper bills, usually with a small orange patch. The bill shape helps give them a slightly ‘angry’ expression. Crucially, the legs and feet are orange, not pink, and there wings are darker and browner, while the tail is mostly dark with a narrow tip. Small-billed Pinkfeet, in contrast, have frosty grey wings and a broad white band on the tip of the tail; and pink legs and feet, of course!