Michele Mendi

Breeds in three distinct populations in Greenland, Svalbard and Arctic Russia/Baltic/North Sea, wintering in Northern Ireland/Islay, Scotland and the Netherlands respectively. Numbers increased dramatically following protective measures from 1960 to reach well over a million today, still increasing. Used to be strictly arctic-breeding but birds from the Russian population expanded their breeding range to the southwest, with colonies now found throughout the flyway (van der Jeugd et al. 2009). Favours breeding on small islands in vicinity of open grassland areas, but can nest on cliffs, in meadows and even pine forests.

Season of assessment

W

Population trendIncreasing
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		877000-1010000,939000
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Barnacle Goose

Strong connectivity between three distinct breeding and respective wintering populations, with little exchange among them (Black et al. 2015). Movement patterns within Russia/Baltic/North Sea population more complex, with all birds wintering in Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, moving north to scattered breeding colonies from southern Fenno-Scandia to North-western Russia. Use of stop-over locations clearly visible, with Greenland population staging on Iceland, Svalbard population in Norway, and Russian population in Baltic. Some short-distance movements between isolated breeding pockets, partly of feral origin, in central Europe. Occasional movements to France and Spain related to few extreme cold spells in winter. Few eastward movements result from birds joining White-fronted geese during spring migration.

Recoveries by Condition for Barnacle Goose

All populations were hunted until sixties, and pre-1960 most recoveries were from shot birds. After that, hunting was banned in most countries except Russia, and recaptures and rings being read in the field dominate. Colour-ringing and reading is extensive in all populations, but most observations of colour-ringed birds are lacking from this atlas, leading to some bias. Most notable is the almost complete absence of encounters along the Norwegian coast in spring, where no ringing takes place but reading of colour-rings is extensive. Recently, derogation hunting occurs in many countries but hunting recoveries are still outnumbered by other categories.

Annual Movements for Barnacle Goose

Majority of birds from Russian breeding areas moving to Baltic in October, with bulk arriving in Western European wintering grounds in November. First birds moving north again in April, with staging in Baltic in May. Main spring migration however nowadays occurs in May, with birds rapidly moving north with limited staging and arriving in breeding areas end of May. Greenland and Svalbard breeders arrive in Western region mainly in October to winter, with Greenland breeders making a stop-over on Iceland in September. Spring migration is in April. For these populations, spring staging on Iceland and on Norwegian coast to second half of May still is the norm, after which mass migration to breeding areas occurs where they arrive end of May, beginning of June.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Barnacle Goose

Ringing and recovery activities concentrated in July in breeding and moulting areas, and in winter months in wintering areas. Strong connectivity between birds wintering in North-west region and breeding on Svalbard and Greenland. Few birds reached US coast through Greenland breeding areas. Birds wintering in West region strongly connected to breeding areas in NW Russia. Birds summering in West region (June, July, August) mainly show short-distance connections within region, pointing to the sedentary nature of these populations. Same is true for birds summering in North-west region. Few connections from summer in West and North-west to northern breeding areas results from either crippled norther breeders staying behind in summer, and from natal dispersal to northern breeding areas.

Henk van der Jeugd

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
Black, J., Prop, J., Larsson, K.2015 . The Barnacle Goose. T & AD Poyser
van der Jeugd, H.P., Eichhorn, G., Litvin, K.E., Stahl, J., Larsson, K., van der Graaf, A.J., Drent, R.H.2009 . Keeping up with early springs: rapid range expansion in an avian herbivore incurs a mismatch between reproductive timing and food supply. Global Change Biology 15 Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01804.x) Wiley: 1057–1071

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