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What about Geese?

Anatidae is the biological family name for many water birds including ducks, swans, and most geese with geese being in the middle range size-wise. Some birds that used to be regarded as members of the family anatidae, like the magpie goose, have been reclassified.

Geese, like other anatidae, are well adapted for water environments, and some for diving under the surface in search of food. This is facilitated by a special gland in the tail of geese that produces oil for its feathers to repel water away from the skin. That combined with air trapped in its feathers keeps geese warm in cold weather and water.

Most geese are migratory birds and can form huge flocks while moving from place to place.

When migrating, geese often form a distinctive "V" pattern. This is a matter of physics. The point bird has to do the most work. The birds behind him benefit from his draft or slipstream and don't have to expend as much energy. The lead bird often switches places other birds in the formation so that no single bird has to bear the whole burden the entire time in flight.

Geese mate for life and return to previous nesting sites season after season if they can. Baby geese are called goslings.

Geese aggressively protect nesting sites and can easily harm humans if aroused.

Here is another aggressive display. Many animals warn away potential threats by making their bodies appear to be larger than they really are.

There are many types of geese. The chart below shows a few of them. As noted above, some birds like the Magpie Goose in the lower right corner are no longer considered to be in the same biological family as most other geese.

The chart isn't comprehensive. Geese are split into two genera; anser (white or grey geese) and branta (black geese). The well-known Canada Goose is among the branta.

The various breeds of domesticated Chinese Goose (anser) have a pronounced basal knob on its bill. The size can vary based on sex and the time of year; i.e. proximity to the breeding season.

Goose Artwork

Artists have been using geese as subjects for a very long time.

Egyptian Art

The artwork below, discovered in 1871, comes from a tomb near the Meidum Pyramid in Egypt. It is roughly 4,600 years old and depicts an extinct type of goose.

Ogata Korin (1658 - 1716)

Korin was one of the founders of the Rinpa School of art. The name of the school was partly based on the final syllable of his name. His Flying Goose and Autumn Grass (1700) is painted on silk and mounted on a fan-shaped frame.

Komatsuken Hyakki (1720 - 1793)

Painted sometime in the 18th century, Hyakki's Geese Descending over Autumn Grasses shows geese along with Japanese pampas grass (susuki) and bush clover (hagi) adjacent to a river or lake. (Refer back to the Seven Flowers of Autumn earlier in this semester.) The 31-syllable waka (Japanese poem) roughly translates to "To people visited by the autumn wind, the season's tidings are brought by wild-geese".

Maruyama Ōkyo (1733 - 1795)

Ōkyo originally studied with the Kanō school, but also closely studied Chinese and Western-styles of art. Moving to Kyōto, he founded the Maruyama school of painting. His work was most popular among commoners. His Goose and Reeds byōbu was painted in 1774.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 - 1858)

Hiroshige was one of the most popular ukiyo-e artists. He is most famous for two of his series of woodblock prints, The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō and One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. His Full Moon at Takanawa was painted in 1831. Takanawa was a location on the outskirts of Edo.

Hiroshige's Wild Geese and Full Moon was painted two years later in 1833. The tall, narrow format is called a tanzaku. He used the basic idea of geese flying in front of the full moon several times. This one was used for the design of a postage stamp in 1949.

The painting is a haiga, a combination of painting and haiku poem.

Ohara Koson (1877 - 1945)

After Japan opened up in 1868, most Japanese artists, entranced by exposure to western styles of painting, moved away from traditional artistic values. Koson was a prominent shin-hanga artist, devoted to restoring traditional subjects and painting techniques to Japanese art. The source of his inspiration for his Geese and Full Moon (1912) is clear from the preceding examples.