Ducks? Geese?

How do we know which is which?

How does he know which is which? My little grandson, all of two years had one look at the photos in my blog and said goose! Huh? The poem was on ducks! His picture book has a coloured bird as duck and a white bird as goose. His book is far from wrong.

Most geese are white or black-and-white.

Most ducks have vibrant colours. But there are white ducks too!

I did some research and learnt that there are FOUR  major ways to tell if what you see is a duck or a goose.

Ducks have nostrils high up in their beaks like this

 

and Geese have nostrils lower down in their beaks, like this

Ducks have shorter necks like this one has

Geese have long necks reminding you of swans

Ducks feed in water and Geese feed on grass

They both lay eggs on land, under tall grass or reeds near water.

Ducks quack and Geese honk. but oh! I can't show you that.