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 Wadden Sea National Park on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 247th most-seen of the 285 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 Wadden Sea National Park 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.
Only Wadden Sea National Park, in our data
Wadden Sea National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Swan Goose sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Anser
The closest relatives of the Swan Goose that you can see in Wadden Sea National Park (genus Anser, Grey Geese) are Greylag Goose (about 60%) and Greater White-fronted Goose (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Swan Goose is recorded against all the birds logged in Wadden Sea National Park (17 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
