Video shows beautiful scene as thousands of snow geese fill skies over CA farm field

A new video captures thousands of snow geese over a Willows, California, rice field during the annual Pacific Flyway migration in the Sacramento Valley.

The snow geese are among the estimated 7 million to 10 million ducks and geese that spend the fall and winter in the Sacramento Valley, according to Jim Morris, communications manager for California Rice Commission.

The snow geese will remain in the region until February and March, he said.

Sacramento Valley is a notable location for migratory birds along the north-south flyway. The 4,000-mile-long flyway extends from Alaska to Patagonia as birds in the spring and fall follow food and water sources and find breeding grounds.

This year, the migratory birds are suffering from drought conditions in California, water and wildlife experts say.

“Our region is a vital stopover for these birds,” Morris told The Bee. “This has been a difficult year for migrating birds due to the drought throughout the west, so their seasonal habitat here is especially crucial.”

Morris recently posted video of the snow geese at a Northern California field.

Craig Isola, a Sacramento River National Wildlife Refuge manager, told the Desert Sun newspaper that the birds are arriving to earlier and hungrier this year.

“We are seeing birds show up earlier here because of lack of water in the north, in the Klamath Basin,” Isola told the Desert Sun. “Historically birds will stage and hold up in the Klamath Valley before flying down to Sacramento. But when there’s nothing to the north, they move south. The birds are coming in hungry.”

An estimated 74% of the ducks’ food resources in the Sacramento Valley come from winter-flooded rice, and 95% of goose food resources here come from both dry and flooded rice fields, according to Central Valley Joint Venture, which helps conserve bird habitat.