THE Egyptian goose is common and widespread throughout Southern Africa.
Its voice is a hoarse ‘haaa’ by the female, while males display with a hissing (similar to the airbrakes of a bus).
Both have a rapid honking ‘ka ka ka’ just before take-off. They call with their necks stretched forward.
The bird’s habitat is mostly inland waters, rivers, dams, floodplains, pans, marshes, as well as estuaries, coastal lakes and cultivated fields.
The bird is highly gregarious when it is not breeding, and is otherwise mainly found in pairs. They swim high in the water, spending much of the day loafing on the shoreline or a sandbank.
It flies in the early morning and evening to farmlands and grassland to graze, returning to roost by day and nightfall. It feeds on grass, leaves, seeds, grain, rhizomes and tubers.
Breeding occurs throughout the year and the nest is a grass-lined hollow on the ground in dense vegetation. It also holes in cliffs, trees, buildings, up to 60m above ground. It lays between five and 11 eggs and incubation lasts 30 days, while fledgings stay about 55 days .
Its Afrikaans name is kolgans because of the patch on the centre of the breast.
The bird’s Zulu name is iLongwe.
