The length ranges from, wingspan from and weight from. In the nominate subspecies, males average and females average. The bill is black at the base and tip, with an orange band across the middle; the legs and feet are also bright orange. The upper wing-coverts are dark brown, as in the white-fronted goose and the lesser white-fronted goose, but differing from these in having narrow white fringes to the feathers. The voice is a loud honking, higher pitched in the smaller subspecies. The closely related pink-footed goose has the bill short, bright pink in the middle, and the feet also pink, the upper wing-coverts being nearly of the same bluish-grey as in the greylag goose. In size and bill structure, it is very similar to Anser fabalis rossicus, and in the past was often treated as a sixth subspecies of bean goose.
Taxonomy
The English and scientific names of the bean goose come from its habit in the past of grazing in bean field stubbles in winter. Anser is the Latin for "goose", and fabalis is derived from the Latin faba, a broad bean. on the right, at Spaarndam, Noord-Holland, the Netherlands There are three subspecies, with complex variation in body size and bill size and pattern; generally, size increases from north to south and from west to east. ;Taiga bean goose
A. f. fabalis. Scandinavia east to the Urals. Large; bill long and narrow, with broad orange band. Anser fabalis fabalis is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.
A. f. johanseni. West Siberian taiga. Large; bill long and narrow, with narrow orange band.
A. f. middendorffii. East Siberian taiga. Very large; bill long and stout, with narrow orange band.
Distribution
The taiga bean goose is a rare winter visitor to Britain. There are two regular wintering flocks of taiga bean goose, in the Yare Valley, Norfolk and the Avon Valley, Scotland. A formerly regular flock in Dumfries and Galloway no longer occurs there. The taiga bean geese Anser fabalis fabalis wintering in Europe are considered to migrate across three different flyways: Western, Central and Eastern; which has been confirmed by stable isotope analysis of their flight feathers.
