This entry covers the Taiga Bean Goose, Anser fabalis, as a species separate from the Tundra Bean Goose, A. serrirostris.
In the western population described by the RSPB, the head and neck are dark brown, the legs are orange, and the bill has a yellow-orange band.
At Katano-kamoike in Ishikawa, Japan, wintering Taiga Bean Geese of the subspecies Anser fabalis middendorffii eat water chestnut fruits from the pond bottom. After upending to retrieve a fruit, they roll it in the bill, break off its hard spines, crack the shell and swallow. Some retrieved fruits are discarded. Food selection continues after a fruit has been picked up.
During the winters of 2010/11 and 2011/12, feeding sequences from the start of searching to completion took roughly three times as long for large fruits as for small ones. Across three winters in 2015–2018, small fruits formed a higher proportion of those eaten than of fruits collected from areas protected from goose feeding. Choosing small fruits may improve feeding efficiency. At the surface, bills moved around the fruits as the geese dealt with spines and shells.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Japan’s 2026 assessment of Anser fabalis middendorffii identifies loss and deterioration of wetlands supporting wild rice and water chestnuts. Development and hunting are also concerns in parts of its Kamchatka breeding range. Retaining shallow waters where food plants grow is a conservation priority at the Japanese wintering sites.