# Taiga bean goose (*Anser fabalis*)

Canonical page: https://creaturedata.com/animals/taiga-bean-goose  
Data as of: 2026-11-13

The taiga bean goose (Anser fabalis), also called the Bean goose, is a bird in the waterfowl subgroup, belonging to the family Anatidae in the order Anseriformes. It is a medium-sized, migratory herbivore of wetland habitat with a terrestrial lifestyle, weighing from 2.7 to 3.2 kg, with a wingspan of 1.62 m. It lays one clutch of 5 eggs per year, incubates them for 28 days, and reaches sexual maturity at 3 years. The IUCN Red List assesses it globally as Least Concern, which is not a threatened category, and its geographic range covers 13,920,000 km².

## Quick facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Weight | 2.74 kg – 3.2 kg |
| Length | 68 cm – 90 cm |
| Wingspan | 1.62 m |
| Lifespan | 23 years |
| Diet | Herbivore |
| Longest recorded lifespan | 25.6 years |
| Main food | Not recorded |
| Habitat | wetland |
| Egg incubation | 28 days |
| Young per litter or clutch | 5 |
| Age at maturity | 3 years |
| Litters or clutches a year | 1 |
| Lifestyle | Terrestrial |
| Migration | Migratory |
| Conservation status | Least Concern (IUCN) |
| Countries on record | Not recorded |

## Introduced range

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists it as introduced in 1 country. Introduced: Sweden. Source: https://griis.org/ (CC BY 4.0).

## Classification

- kingdom: Animalia
- phylum: Chordata
- class: Aves
- order: Anseriformes
- family: Anatidae
- genus: Anser
- species: *Anser fabalis* (Latham, 1787)

Synonyms: *Anas segetum*, *Anser fabilis*, *Anser segetum*, *Melanonyx fabalis fabalis*

## Common questions

### What kind of animal is the taiga bean goose?

The taiga bean goose is a bird in the waterfowl subgroup. It belongs to the family Anatidae, order Anseriformes, and genus Anser.

### How heavy is the taiga bean goose?

Adults weigh 2.755 kg as a representative value, with reported values from 2.735 to 3.198 kg. Its wingspan is 1.62 m.

### What does the taiga bean goose eat?

The taiga bean goose is a herbivore.

### What habitat does the taiga bean goose use?

It uses wetland habitat and has a terrestrial lifestyle. It is migratory.

### Is the taiga bean goose endangered?

No. The IUCN Red List assesses it globally as Least Concern, which is not a threatened category.

### How long does the taiga bean goose live?

Its lifespan is 23 years, with values up to 25.6 years reported by sources.

### How many eggs does the taiga bean goose lay?

It lays 5 eggs per clutch and has 1 clutch per year. The eggs are incubated for 28 days.

### Is the taiga bean goose an invasive species?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the taiga bean goose as introduced in 1 country: Sweden, but does not flag it as invasive in any of them.

## Sources

- [An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1), CC0 1.0, E096-269. Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
- [AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7), CC BY 4.0, v7. Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7
- [Catalogue of Life eXtended Release](https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset/316691), CC BY 4.0, 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
- [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org), per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed), 2026-11-11. Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
- [Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS)](https://griis.org/), CC BY 4.0, 2026-11-13. Pagad, S., Genovesi, P., Carnevali, L., Schigel, D. & McGeoch, M.A. (2018) Introducing the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species. Scientific Data 5: 170202. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.202. Country checklists published through GBIF by the IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group.
- [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org), CC0 1.0, 2026-11-11. Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
- [Wikipedia (English)](https://en.wikipedia.org), CC BY-SA 4.0, 2026-11-11. Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

Cite as: Taiga bean goose (Anser fabalis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/taiga-bean-goose