The Taiga Bean Goose (Anser fabalis) is a large, dark grey goose readily told from the paler Greylag by its black bill marked with an orange band and its orange legs. It measures 70–90 cm in length, has a wingspan of 147–175 cm and weighs 2,500–3,800 grams. The plumage is dark brownish-grey with lighter barring on the flanks, the head and neck often appearing darker still, and in flight the bird lacks the Greylag's pale grey forewing panel, looking altogether darker, longer-necked and heavier bodied. Even at a distance, before any bill pattern is visible, the goose's dark, stately bulk usually sets it apart from other grey geese on the same field.
The call is a deep, somewhat nasal, two- or three-syllable "ang-ang-ank," darker and less whining than the Greylag's, heard most often from resting or migrating flocks at dawn and dusk as they shuttle between roost and feeding ground. Sweden's own breeding population is comparatively small, nesting on bogs and by forest tarns in the north, where the female lays 4–6 eggs in a well-hidden ground nest and the family stays together long after the young fledge, often through the whole autumn migration. Far larger numbers pass through or winter in the south, though: tens of thousands rest on open farmland in southern Sweden between September and April, many originating from Russian breeding populations, grazing on waste grain, grass, potatoes and root-crop remains, and commuting daily between safe roosting lakes and feeding fields. Since 2025, BirdLife Sweden has split the closely related Tundra Bean Goose out as a separate species, leaving this taiga-breeding form as Anser fabalis in the narrower sense.
Read about this species in Swedish →