The Orinoco goose (Neochen jubata) is a Near Threatened species of waterfowl in tribe Tadornini of subfamily Anserinae. It is found in every mainland South American country except Chile, French Guiana, Suriname, and Uruguay. Taxonomy and systematics The Orinoco goose's taxonomy is unsettled. The International Ornithological Committee (IOC) and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) place it alone in genus Neochen. However, based on a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014, the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society and the Clements taxonomy place it and the Andean goose in the resurrected genus Oressochen. The IOC and HBW place the Andean goose in genus Chloephaga. Two fossil relatives have been described from Pleistocene sites in South America, Neochen pugil and N. debilis. The Orinoco goose is monotypic. Description The Orinoco goose is long. Males weigh about and females about . Adult males have an off-white head, neck, and breast with slight buffy streaks on the nape and buffy scalloping on the breast. Their mantle is gray with white scalloping. They have an orange band across the upper mantle and onto the sides of the breast and flanks and a crescent of dark brown behind the flanks. Their undertail coverts are white. Their wings are black with a wide white speculum. Their bill has a black maxilla and a mostly red mandible and their legs and feet are bright salmon red. Adult females have a similar pattern as the male, but have a drab wash on their crown and nape, less orange on the flanks, and darker scalloping on the sides of the belly. Their legs and feet are more a dull orange than bright red. Distribution and habitat The Orinoco goose is found from Venezuela south through Colombia, eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru, and Bolivia into far northern Argentina and in a broad swath across central Brazil. An isolated population spans the northern Brazil-Guyana border. Though the IUCN range map includes French Guiana, Suriname, and Paraguay, the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society has no records in the first two countries and records only as a vagrant in Paraguay. The Orinoco goose inhabits wet savanna and the edges of large freshwater wetlands in the wet season, and in the dry season is also found on river beaches and oxbow lakes in the Amazon Basin. Behavior Migration The Orinoco goose is a year-round