A gosling is a baby goose. Just like a puppy grows into a dog or a kitten becomes a cat, a gosling hatches from an egg and eventually grows into an adult goose with full-sized wings and loud honking calls.

Goslings emerge from their eggs covered in soft, fuzzy down feathers, usually yellow or grayish in color. Within hours of hatching, they can already walk, swim, and follow their parents around. You might see a line of goslings waddling behind their mother at a pond or park, learning to paddle through the water and nibble on grass and water plants.

Perhaps the most famous gosling in literature appears in the classic tale The Ugly Duckling, though that story involves a twist: the “ugly duckling” who doesn't fit in with the other ducklings eventually grows up to be a beautiful swan, not a gosling at all.