Barnacle Goose

• GeneralIts chicks throw themselves off cliffs up to 100 m high within days of hatching, to reach the grass below.
• In Greenland it nests high on inaccessible cliffs to escape the Arctic fox and the polar bear, but that leaves the goslings far from food: since the adults do not feed them, three-day-old goslings throw themselves off the cliff and survive the fall thanks to their tiny weight and their down.
• Its name comes from a medieval belief: they were thought to be born from goose barnacle shells, because nobody knew they bred in the Arctic. The myth is documented from at least the 12th century.
• Despite closely resembling the brent goose, genetic analysis has shown that its nearest relative is the cackling goose.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat & environment

Arctic tundra with cliffs, and coastal saltmarsh in winter

Sexual maturity

2 years

Litter / clutch size

The nest is a shallow scrape on the ground, among the vegetation of rocky terrain, reused year after year and often near the nests of other seabirds

Sources consulted: IUCN Red List; SEO/BirdLife; Informe Art. 12 de la Directiva Aves (Agencia Europea de Medio Ambiente); European Red List of Birds 2015; Ottenburghs et al.; Asturnatura; Bechstein 1803; Scopoli 1769

Best time: In winter, when it occasionally reaches the wetlands of Galicia, the Villafáfila lagoons and the Guadalquivir marshes