Anserinae.html

Anserinae

A Swan Goose (Anser cygnoides)

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Anseriformes
Family:	Anatidae
Subfamily:	Anserinae Vigors, 1825

Genera

see text

Synonyms

Cygninae

The Anserinae is a subfamily in the waterfowl family Anatidae. It includes the swans and true geese. Under alternative systematical concepts (see e.g. Terres & NAS, 1991), it is split into two subfamilies, the Anserinae containing the geese (and also the whistling-ducks), while the Cygninae contain the swans.

A number of other waterbirds, mainly related to the shelducks, have "goose" as part of their name; see the family page at Anatidae and the goose page for these.

Systematics

Swans - tribe Cygnini

Genus Cygnus - true swans

The black-and-yellow-billed swans are sometimes separated in the genus Olor.

True Geese - tribe Anserini

Genus Anser - grey geese
Genus Chen - white geese (sometimes merged into Anser)
Genus Branta - black geese

Unresolved

Genus Coscoroba - Coscoroba Swan

The following two genera are distinct from other geese and often elevated to a subfamily of its own (Cereopsinae), or alternatively into the shelduck subfamily Tadorninae:

Tribe Cereopsini

Genus Cereopsis - Cape Barren Goose
Genus Cnemiornis - New Zealand geese (prehistoric)

There are some enigmatic subfossils of very large goose-like birds from the Hawaiian Islands which do not appear to be moa-nalos (goose-sized dabbling ducks). They cannot be assigned to any genus living today, though most if not all may be fairly close to Branta:

Wetmore's Goose, Geochen rhuax - initially alied with Cereopsis, but this seems hardly correct for reasons of biogeography.
Giant Hawaiʻi Goose, ?Branta sp.
Giant Oʻahu Goose, Anatidae sp. et gen. indet.

References

Terres, John K. & National Audubon Society (1991): The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds. Wings Books, New York. ISBN 0-517-03288-0