Anser cygnoides
Silhouette: Rebecca Groom · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The swan goose (Anser cygnoides) is a large goose with a natural breeding range in inland Mongolia, Northeast China, and the Russian Far East. It is migratory and winters mainly in central and eastern China. Vagrant birds are encountered in Japan and Korea (where it used to winter in numbers when it was more common), and more rarely in Kazakhstan, Laos, coastal Siberia, Taiwan, Thailand and Uzbekistan.
While uncommon in the wild, this species has been extensively domesticated, when it is known as Chinese goose. Introduced and feral populations of its domestic breeds occur in many places outside its natural range. The wild form is also kept in collections, and escapes are not unusual amongst feral flocks of other Anser and Branta geese.
The swan goose was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Anas cygnoid. The original spelling of "cygnoid." (with a fullstop, suggesting an abbreviation) is widely treated as an orthographic error to be corrected to "cygnoides", but some authors regard cygnoid (without the fullstop) to be the correct original spelling which should be used, citing... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ciudad Juárez | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 2 | Suzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 3 | Beijing | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 4 | Cairo | 🇪🇬 Egypt | |
| 5 | Osaka | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 6 | Istanbul | 🇹🇷 Turkey | |
| 7 | Pune | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Nanchang | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 9 | Kuala Lumpur | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 10 | Las Vegas | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Swan Goose sighting in Taipei on a given day, based on 72 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 169th most-seen of the 266 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Swan Goose in Taipei on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Swan Goose sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
30th of 39
Of the 39 cities where we can rate Swan Goose sightings, Taipei ranks 30th at under 5%. The best odds are in Ciudad Juárez (México, about 30%), Suzhou (China, about 10%) and Beijing (China, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Swan Goose is recorded against all the birds logged in Taipei (72 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
