Well, it's been a couple weeks since I joined up with the Wildfowl
listserve and so far I have received no responses regarding Pink-footed
Geese from regional goose collectors and only one response overall
which was a less than helpful:

"i would almost bet they have escaped from a collection -michael"

I posted a link to photos (taken by Ruth Sullivan) of the White-fronted
Geese that have been hanging out with the Pink-foots at Bowerman Basin
on ID-frontiers. The so far unanimous concensus is that they are not
_flavirostris_ (Greenland form) White-fronts.

Comments include:
Malcolm Ogilvie: This is definitely NOT a flavirostris Whitefront. The
bill is pink not orange, the white forehead is too extensive and lacks
the usual dark edging between the white and the rest of the head, while
the bird is, overall, far too pale. It certainly has extensive black
barring on the belly, typical of the majority of flavirostris, but this
still falls within the variation that occurs in, e.g., albifrons and
frontalis. In other words, the extent of the black barring is not
diagnostic of any race.

Michel Veldt: both the white stripe on the flanks as well as the white
on it's tail edges both are much too prominent for flavirostris.
A Greenland-race would show much smaller edges of white on both places. From
what's visible on the pictures I think you can safely rule out flavirostris.

Bruce Deuel: I see nothing in these photos that
fall outside the range of frontalis. In my 12 years of capturing and
banding Greater White-fronted Geese in the Klamath Basin of northern
California, and searching through flocks every year for collared birds of
both frontalis and elgasi, I saw numerous individuals with some orange in
the bill, but they were otherwise not distinguishable from their flock
mates. If I remember correctly, however, the tendency to more orange was
more pronounced in young birds, which this individual clearly is not.

Eddie Chapman: Photo number one is of interest. Flavirostris often show
a darker
head/underparts. If you look at the photo of the Pink-footed Goose in photo
number one, you will see that it has a darker head, compared with the
White-front to its left. The flavirostris that I have seen often show just
as dark head as the Pink-foot. In picture number two you can plainly see
that there is no difference in colouration in the birds head. If I saw this
bird I would have said albifrons.

--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
celata at pacifier.com

You've got to accentuate the positive
eliminate the negative
latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mr. In-Between.
- Johnny Mercer

http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/bird/bird.html