Skip to content
The UK Bird Atlas

Greylag Goose (Anser anser)Where and when to see it in the UK

Resident · reporting peaks March to May · Ducks, Swans, and Geese · BOU category AC2C4E*F

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Greylag Goose (Anser anser)
Imran Shah from Islamabad, Pakistan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Greylag Goose: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Greylag Goose has been recorded in 2,425 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (82%) in records to 2026. Resident in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in March to May.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
43% or more of visits
High
20% to 43%
Moderate
8% to 20%
Low
under 8%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 70%19%Very high
February 72%20%Very high
March 89%24%Very high
April 100%27%Very high
May 94%26%Very high
June 68%19%High
July 73%20%Very high
August 73%20%Very high
September 71%20%Very high
October 73%20%Very high
November 68%19%Very high
December 65%18%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in March

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
D22Causeway Coast and Glens, Northern Ireland100%Very high
H13Fermanagh and Omagh, Northern Ireland100%Very high
H96Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, Northern Ireland100%Very high
HP51Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HU16Sea, off Shetland Islands100%Very high
HU24Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HU27Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HU36Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HU39Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HU46Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.