The Zoochat Photographic Guide to the Anseriformes

Did we skip Nomonyx?
 
Branta


Brent Goose
(Branta bernicla)

The summer breeding range of this species extends throughout the Arctic Circle in Greenland, Svalbard, Siberia, northern Canada and coastal Alaska; the wintering range of the species extends south into the British Isles and western Europe, Japan, northeast China and the Korean Peninsula, the Pacific coastline of North America from Alaska to Baja California, and coastal eastern USA.

Four subspecies are recognised:

B. b. hrota
- photo by @Tomek

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B. b. bernicla
- photo by @gentle lemur

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B. b. orientalis
B. b. nigricans
- photo by @Dormitator

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Barnacle Goose
(Branta leucopsis)

The summer breeding range of this species extends throughout the European Arctic, from eastern Greenland in the west to Novaya Zemlya and northwest Siberia in the east; patchy populations occur to the south in Scandinavia and the Baltic coastline. Wintering populations occur throughout northern Great Britain and the North Sea coastline of western Europe.

Monotypic.

Photo by @Daniel Sörensen

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Red-breasted Goose
(Branta ruficollis)

The summer breeding range of this species extends throughout the tundra of north-central Siberia, particularly the Taymyr Peninsula; wintering populations occur in southeast Europe, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia and the southwest coastline of the Caspian Sea.

Monotypic.

Photo by @KevinB

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Cackling Goose
(Branta hutchinsii)

The summer breeding range of this species extends from the Aleutian Islands in the west, through western Alaska and northernmost Canada, to northeast Canada in the east; wintering populations occur in Japan, the Pacific coastline of USA, south-central and southeast USA and northern Mexico.

Four subspecies are recognised:

B. h. leucopareia
- photo by @Tomek

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B. h. minima
- photo by @Tomek

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B. h. taverneri
- photo by @Ituri

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B. h. hutchinsii
- photo by @Ituri

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Canada Goose
(Branta canadensis)

The summer breeding range of this species extends throughout Alaska, Canada and western Greenland, south into west-central and northeast USA; wintering populations occur along the Pacific coastline of western Canada, and throughout the USA into north-central Mexico. Resident introduced populations occur throughout much of North America south of the summer breeding range, and also throughout Europe and New Zealand.

Seven subspecies are recognised:

B. c. occidentalis
- photo by @Tomek

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B. c. fulva.
B. c. parvipes
- photo by @Ituri

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B. c. moffitti
- photo by @Dibatag

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B. c. maxima
- photo by @Tomek

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B. c. interior
B. c. canadensis
- photo by @ThylacineAlive

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Hawaiian Goose
(Branta sandvicensis)

Endemic to Hawaii.

Monotypic.

Photo by @Great Argus

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Did we skip Nomonyx?

*facepalm*

I've fixed it now; I didn't copy it across when posting all the accounts I had written in one go. Fortunately, as I can duplicate posts using the moderator tools i was able to create a new post in the correct location.
 
Anseranas


Magpie-goose
(Anseranas semipalmata)

The range of this species extends widely but patchily throughout northern and eastern Australia, and north into south-central New Guinea; reintroduced populations are present in southeast Australia, where the species was widespread until the 19th century.

Monotypic.

Photo by @MagpieGoose

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Is trhis a self portrait Magpie Goose?:p
 
Anser


Emperor Goose
(Anser canagicus)

The summer breeding range of this species is restricted to the extreme northeast of Russia and the extreme northwest of Alaska; wintering populations extend further south into Kamchatka, the Aleutian Islands and southwest Alaska.

Monotypic.

Photo by @ro6ca66

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Snow Goose
(Anser caerulescens)

The summer breeding range of this species extends throughout much of the far Arctic Circle, from Wrangel Island off the northeast coastline of Siberia, through northernmost Alaska and Canada, to the islands of the far northeast of Canada and northwest Greenland; wintering populations occur patchily throughout central and southern USA and into northern Mexico.

Two subspecies are recognised:

A. c. caerulescens
- photo by @ThylacineAlive

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A. c. atlanticus
- photo by @Maguari

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Ross's Goose
(Anser rossii)

The summer breeding range of this species extends throughout the western coastline of Hudson Bay and surrounding islands, with scattered disjunct populations occurring elsewhere in Arctic Canada and northern Alaska; wintering populations occur patchily in southern USA and northern Mexico.

Monotypic.

Photo by @Tomek

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Bar-headed Goose
(Anser indicus)

The summer breeding range of this species comprises several disjunct populations in the high plateaus and peaks of Tien Shan, the Tibetan Plateau, Mongolia and adjacent areas of central Asia; wintering populations occur to the south from Pakistan in the west, through the Indian Subcontinent to northern Myanmar in the east. Introduced populations occur patchily throughout western and central Europe.

Monotypic.

Photo by @ro6ca66

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Greylag Goose
(Anser anser)

The summer breeding range of this species comprises a patchy but widespread distribution throughout much of northern Eurasia, from Iceland and the British Isles in the west, through northern and eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and southern Siberia to Mongolia, northeast China and the Russian Far East in the east; wintering populations extend patchily from the British Isles, Iberian Peninsula and northwest Africa in the west, through the Mediterranean, Asia Minor and Middle East into the Himalayas and adjacent regions of the northern Indian Subcontinent, northern Indochina and southeast China. Introduced and feral populations occur throughout Europe.

Two subspecies are recognised:

A. a. anser
- photo by @KevinB

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A. a. rubrirostris
- photo by @Maguari

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Swan Goose
(Anser cygnoid)

The summer breeding range of this species extends patchily from south-central Siberia and adjacent northern Mongolia in the west to northeast China, the Russian Far East and Sakhalin in the east; wintering populations occur in the Korean Peninsula, east-central China and sporadically in Taiwan and Japan.

Monotypic.

Photo by @KevinB

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Bean Goose
(Anser fabalis)

The summer breeding range of this species extends throughout the taiga and tundra of northern Eurasia, from Scandinavia in the west, through northwest Russia into Siberia and northern Mongolia, to the Russian Far East and northeast China in the east; wintering populations occur patchily in western, central and southeast Europe, in southern Kazakhstan and adjacent areas of central Asia, and throughout eastern China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

Five subspecies are recognised, the latter two of which may merit shared species level:

A. f. fabalis
- photo by @Daniel Sörensen

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A. f. johanseni
A. f. middendorffii
A. f. rossicus
A. f. serrirostris



Pink-footed Goose
(Anser brachyrhynchus)

The summer breeding range of this species extends throughout eastern Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard; wintering populations extend throughout Great Britain and from Denmark in the north to Belgium in the south.

Monotypic.

Photo by @Maguari

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Greater White-fronted Goose
(Anser albifrons)

The summer breeding range of this species extends throughout much of the Arctic Circle, from northwest Siberia in the west to the Russian Far East and Alaska, and from across northern Canada to western Greenland; wintering populations occur patchily throughout northern, central and southeast Europe into the Middle East and Caucasus, in the northern Indian Subcontinent and Himalayas, in eastern China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and throughout much of the western and southern USA into western Mexico.

Six subspecies are recognised:

A. a. albifrons
- photo by @Daniel Sörensen

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A. a. frontalis
A. a. gambelli
- photo by @ThylacineAlive

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A. a. sponsa
A. a. elgasi
- photo by @Maguari

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A. a. flavirostris
- photo by @Maguari

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Lesser White-fronted Goose
(Anser erythropus)

The summer breeding range of this species extends discontinuously throughout Arctic Eurasia from northern Norway in the west to northeast Siberia in the east; wintering populations occur patchily throughout central and southeast Europe into Asia Minor, the southern Caucasus and the Middle East, and also throughout eastern China into the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

Monotypic.

Photo by @gentle lemur

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Very old-school of you not to split the two Bean Goose species..!

I do, actually - but for the sake of consistency I'm following the HBW taxonomy, and they have re-lumped the two species after initially accepting the split :P given the fact that last I heard one of them is closer to Pink-footed and the other is closer to Greater White-fronted I reckon it is a fairly safe split!

I've really got to root out my photographs from Blackbrook of rossicus and serrirostris and upload them; I was rather surprised to discover there are only two shots of *any* Bean Goose in the gallery, both being fabalis.
 
I have added a photo of Branta hutchinsii taverneri uploaded by @Ituri into the thread :)
 
Clangula


Long-tailed Duck
(Clangula hyemalis)

The summer breeding range of this species represents a circumpolar distribution throughout the Arctic coastlines of North America, Europe and Asia; wintering populations extend as far south as the Korean Peninsula and northern Japan in the northwest Pacific and southwest Canada in the northeast Pacific, North Carolina in the northwest Atlantic and the British Isles and North Sea and Baltic coastlines of western Europe in the northeastern Atlantic.

Monotypic.

Photo by @Maguari

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Somateria


Spectacled Eider
(Somateria fischeri)

The summer breeding range of this species extends along the Arctic coastline of northeast Siberia and northwest Alaska, with wintering populations occurring among the sea ice of the Bering Sea.

Monotypic.

Photo by @Tomek

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King Eider
(Somateria spectabilis)

The summer breeding range of this species extends throughout the Arctic coastlines of North America, Asia and Europe, with breeding only sporadic on the Scandinavian and Icelandic coastline; wintering populations extend south into the Bering Sea and the North Atlantic as far south as the northeast USA, the Faeroes, Shetlands and Scandinavia.

Monotypic.

Photo by @gentle lemur

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Common Eider
(Somateria mollissima)

The summer breeding range of this species extends throughout the Arctic coastlines of North America, Asia and Europe, and south into the north Pacific and north Atlantic as far south as the Aleutian Islands, northeast USA, northern British Isles and the Baltic Sea; wintering populations occur throughout the breeding range, and also further south to southern Kamchatka, southern Alaska and northwest Canada, eastern USA and the Bay of Biscay.

Six subspecies are recognised:

S. m. mollissima
- photo by @lisaS

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S. m. faeroeensis
- photo by @Maguari

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S. m. borealis
- photo by @Gigit

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S. m. sedentaria
S. m. dresseri
- photo by @ThylacineAlive

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S. m. v-nigrum
- photo by @Maguari

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Polysticta


Steller's Eider
(Polysticta stelleri)

The summer breeding range of this species extends throughout much of the Arctic coastline of northern Siberia, extending into northwest Alaska; wintering populations extend south into the Baltic Sea, the northern coastline of Scandinavia, the northern coastline of Japan and Kamchatka, and throughout the Bering Sea.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present within the Zoochat gallery.
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Melanitta


Surf Scoter
(Melanitta perspicillata)

The summer breeding range of this species extends throughout Alaska and into northern and central Canada, as far east as Labrador; wintering populations extend throughout much of the North American coastline, from as far north as the Aleutian Islands to as far south as Baja California and Sonora in the Pacific, and from as far north as Nova Scotia to as far south as Florida and southern Texas in the Atlantic and Caribbean.

Monotypic.

Photo by @Ituri

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Velvet Scoter
(Melanitta fusca)

The summer breeding range of this species extends from Scandinavia and the Baltic States in the west, throughout northwest and central Siberia, and south from here into northern Kazakhstan; patchy breeding has been reported in the Caucasus and northeast Tyrkey. Wintering populations occur throughout the coastline of western Europe and the Baltic Sea, through central Europe along the Danube into the Black Sea, and in the southern Caspian Sea.

Monotypic.

Photo by @Tomek - note that this photograph, as with other images of this species in the Zoochat gallery, depicts an individual from a captive population which demonstrates clear morphological aspects of the American White-winged Scoter and hence is potentially not accurate for the purposes of this thread:

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Siberian Scoter
(Melanitta stejnegeri)

The summer breeding range of this species extends from northern Mongolia and central Siberia in the west to Sakhalin, Kamchatka and northeast Siberia in the east; wintering populations extend south from here, from the western Aleutian Islands in the north, through Japan, the Korean Peninsula and the eastern coastline of China, to southeast China in the south.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present within the Zoochat gallery.


White-winged Scoter
(Melanitta deglandi)

The summer breeding range of this species extends throughout Alaska and Canada as far east as the Hudson Bay; wintering populations extend in the Pacific from the western Aleutian Islands in the north to Baja California in the south, and in the Atlantic from the Gulf of St Lawrence to northern Florida.

Monotypic.

Photo by @ThylacineAlive

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Common Scoter
(Melanitta nigra)

The summer breeding range of this species extends from eastern Greenland, Iceland and the northern British Isles in the west, throughout Scandinavia and northern Russia to northeast Siberia in the east; wintering populations occur from the Baltic Sea and North Sea in the north, through the Atlantic coastline of western Europe and northwest Africa, to Mauritania in the south.

Monotypic.

Photo by @gentle lemur

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Black Scoter
(Melanitta americana)

The summer breeding range of this species extends from northeast Siberia and Kamchatka in the west to Alaska and northwest Canada in the east, and also throughout eastern Canada from Hudson Bay to Newfoundland; wintering populations occur throughout the northern Pacific as far south as Japan and the Korean Peninsula in the northwest and northern Baja California in the northeast, and along the Atlantic coastline of North America as far south as northern Florida.

Monotypic.

Photo by @Ituri

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Photo by @birdsandbats

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Last edited:
Black Scoter (Melanitta americana).........no photographs of this species are present within the Zoochat gallery

....and it's at times like this that I am particularly frustrated that even though there has been a long-staying and relatively-reliable vagrant Black Scoter in my neck of the woods for several years, it sticks to a particular bay which is only feasible to reach if one has a car :p
 
Black Scoter (Melanitta americana)

The summer breeding range of this species extends from northeast Siberia and Kamchatka in the west to Alaska and northwest Canada in the east, and also throughout eastern Canada from Hudson Bay to Newfoundland; wintering populations occur throughout the northern Pacific as far south as Japan and the Korean Peninsula in the northwest and northern Baja California in the northeast, and along the Atlantic coastline of North America as far south as northern Florida.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present within the Zoochat gallery.
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I might have a photo, I shall have to poke around my photos later.
 
Bucephala


Bufflehead
(Bucephala albeola)

The summer breeding range of this species extends throughout Alaska and central Canada to Hudson Bay and the Great Lakes, and south into northernmost USA; scattered breeding populations also occur in northwest and north-central USA. Wintering populations extend south from the breeding range throughout the Pacific and Atlantic coastlines of North America from as far north as southern Alaska and Nova Scotia to central Mexico, and also throughout much of the USA and northern Mexico.

Monotypic.

Photo by @ThylacineAlive

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Common Goldeneye
(Bucephala clangula)

The summer breeding range of this species represents a widespread Holarctic distribution covering much of northern Eurasia and North America, from Scandinavia and the Baltic States in the west, throughout Siberia and adjacent portions of central Asia, to northeast China, Sakhalin and Kamchatka in the east, and from Alaska in the west, throughout much of central and southern Canada, to Newfoundland in the east. In Eurasia, wintering populations occur patchily in western and central Europe, in central Asia, throughout the Tibetan Plateau into eastern China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan; in North America, wintering populations extend throughout the Aleutian Islands into coastal south Alaska and western Canada, and from here throughout North America south of the breeding range to as far south as north-central Mexico.

Two subspecies are recognised:

B. c. clangula
- photo by @LaughingDove

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B. c. americana
- photo by @Pleistohorse

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Barrow's Goldeneye
(Bucephala islandica)

The summer breeding range of this species represents a number of disjunct populations; throughout northwest North America from southern Alaska in the south to northern California and Wyoming in the south; throughout the St Lawrence river basin and Labrador in eastern Canada; and in Iceland. The populations in the Rocky Mountains and Iceland are resident. Wintering populations extend throughout the Pacific coastline of North America from southern Alaska to southern California, through the Rocky Mountains to northern New Mexico, and patchily on the southeast coastline of Canada.

Monotypic.

Photo by @Maguari

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Mergellus


Smew
(Mergellus albellus)

The summer breeding range of this species extends across much of northern Eurasia, from Scandinavia in the west, throughout Siberia and adjacent portions of northern Kazakhstan and northern Mongolia, to Kamchatka and the Russian Far East in the east; wintering populations occur patchily throughout the North Sea and Baltic Sea, and from here throughout central and eastern Europe into the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, and also throughout eastern China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

Monotypic.

Photo by @gulogulogulo

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