© Johann Du Toit
Brown above, grayish below with pinkish red legs and feet. Dark brown eye and chest patch (immature usually has small eye patch and no breast patch). The females have richer voice and males make a hissing noise. The Egyptian Goose is a very common resident and highly gregarious apart from when it pairs when breeding.
Tends to roost near water and graze on grasses, grains, aquatic rhizomes and tubers away in the grasslands and fields. The nest site is a grass lined hollow on ground or in dense vegetation, lined with thick grey down (which is used for covering the 5-11 cream coloured eggs, when a parent is absent.).
The eggs are incubated for 28-30 days by the female but looked after by both parents as fledglings by 55 days. The young leave the nest after 6 hours by jumping out of the nest in response to the females call.
