Magpie Goose

Magpie geese are unmistakable birds with their black and white plumage that is similar to the color schemes of the true magpies.

The Magpie Goose has a black head and neck, and its distinctive knob on the crown gets bigger as it gets older and is more prominent in males. The underwing's black margins contrast sharply with the white underparts. The legs, foot, and bill are all orange. Compared to men, females are somewhat smaller.

Magpie geese feed in large, noisy flocks of up to a few thousand birds. They congregate to feed on aquatic vegetation. Almost entirely vegetarian like hoatzins, these birds also consume blades of grass, seeds, bulbs, and rhizomes dug from underground using their hooked bill.

The species was formerly common in southern Australia as well, but it vanished there mostly as a result of the wetlands where the birds had previously bred being drained. Their widespread and steady presence in northern Australia has been "ensured [by] protective management" because of their significance to Aboriginal people as a seasonal food supply, as targets of recreational shooting, and as a tourist attraction.

Animal socialites, magpie geese live in flocks. When migrating between places during the rainy and dry seasons, these flocks move together. In the wetlands and bogs they live in, these geese swim and wade. They usually reside in groups of three—one male and two females—while caring for the chicks. They might take to the woods to roost. Their cry is a loud "honk."

The magpie goose is seen in floodplains and wet grasslands. Some individuals, mostly younger birds, may be seen at quite long distances inland. The magpie goose is widespread throughout coastal northern and eastern Australia. It can be seen from Fitzroy River, Western Australia, through northern Australia to Rockhampton, Queensland, and has been extending its range into coastal New South Wales to the Clarence River and further south.

• Movement Pattern: Nomadic

• Individual Type: Solo

• Congregatory: Congregatory (and dispersive)

• Population Trend: Stable

• Population: ???

• Locomotion: Airborne

• Habitat: Taiga; Montane Grasslands and Shrublands; Temperate Coniferous Forests; Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests; Temperate Deciduous Forests; Temperate Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands; Subtropical Coniferous Forests; Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests; Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests; Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands; Salt Flats; Stone Forest; Tropical Coniferous Forests; Tropical Moist Broadleaf Forests; Tropical Dry Broadleaf Forests; Tropical Grasslands; Tropical Savannas and Shrublands; Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub; Mushroom Forests; Mushroom Fields; Deserts and Xeric Shrublands; Badlands; Flooded Grasslands and Savannas; Swamp; Bayous/Billabongs; Riparian; Wetland; Mangrove Forest; Air-breathing Coral Reefs; Graveyard Vale; Mountain.

• Earth: 

  • Extant (Resident/Breeding): Australia; Indonesia; Papua New Guinea

• Berbania/Hirawhassa: none

• Reinachos/Ityosel: 

  • Extant and Introduced (Resident/Breeding): ???

• Thatrollwa: none

• Sawintir: none

• Agarathos: none

Because the survivor is always within 17 radii of the hatching egg, magpie geese that hatch from eggs are promptly domesticated. You can give grass, seeds, bulbs, and rhizomes to a magpie goose if it hasn't already been domesticated.

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The Kunwinjku of western Arnhem Land know this bird as manimunak. It became an important food item with the formation of wetlands about 1500, and is depicted in rock art from this period. Mimi figures are often shown holding goose-feather fans. In Yolŋu Matha the bird is known as gurrumaṯtji, or around Ramingining as gumang.

In the Wadawurrung language, the magpie goose is known as Ngangok.

• Yolŋu Matha: Gurrumaṯtji

• Kunwinjku: Manimunak

• Wadawurrung: Ngangok

• Ramingining: Gumang

• Arrernte: Manimutyka (Aboriginal Arabic: منيموچکه)

• This quote was actually based on from one of the lyrics from Masked Wolf's Astronaut in the Ocean.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magpie_goose

• https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22679732/92826979