For what little it's worth I returned about one month ago from Poyang Hu, in
Central China where I spent several days with the two species trying to get a
handle on their separation in the field. Size in my experience is
problematically subjective, unless you have two specimens and a tape measure in hand.
Three factors in my militate strongly in favor of albifrons on the bird in
question, those are [1] bill to skull ratio, [2] the confined extent of the
blaze and [3] the apparent inconspicuousness of the orbital ring.

Is everyone aware of marked the population decline being suffered by Lesser
White-fronted Goose? Alarming. I suspect they will become increasingly scarce
as lower N.A vagrants in the next decade.

Best,
Blake Matheson
Carmel, California & Portland, Oregon



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