,
Singapore) The magpie goose is found in a variety of open
wetland areas such as
floodplains and
swamps, where they wade and swim. They eat mostly vegetation such as dry grass blades, grass seeds,
spike rush bulbs and
wild rice. Magpie geese are fairly sedentary apart from some movement during the dry season. They are colonial breeders and are gregarious outside of the breeding season when they can form large and noisy flocks of up to a few thousand individuals. Magpie geese nest on the ground or in trees where they can be five meters or higher above the ground. Their typical
clutch is between five and 14 eggs. Some males mate with two females, all of which raise the young, unlike some other polygamous birds. This may be beneficial when
predation of young is high as chicks raised by trios are more likely to survive. This species is plentiful across its range, although this is significantly reduced in comparison to the range at time of European settlement. The range once extended as far south as the
Coorong and the wetlands of the southeast of
South Australia and Western
Victoria. For Australia as a whole, it is not threatened and has a controlled hunting season when numbers are large. However, most of the southern populations were extirpated in the mid-20th century by
overhunting and
habitat destruction. The species has been subject to
reintroduction projects such as
Bool Lagoon between Penola and Naracoorte. Populations in more northern areas have again reached a level where it can be regularly utilized by hunters, although not in the example provided. The magpie goose was listed as
near threatened on the 2007 advisory list of threatened vertebrate fauna in Victoria. ==In Aboriginal languages==