The Red-breasted Goose is classified as VULNERABLE by Birdlife International. Although the population was estimated at 88,000 in 1996, it comes under pressure from the intensification of agriculture in its winter feeding grounds such as Bulgaria and elsewhere round the Black Sea where it can be regarded as a pest.

A few birds straggle into western Europe during the winter particularly into England and the Netherlands but in these areas there is also the possibility that a sighted bird is an escape from a wildfowl collection.

There is an illustration in HBW, Volume 1, Page 580.