If you were cooking a duck or a goose, you would not need to baste it while it cooked.

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Fat content and skin crispness drive how you baste in roasting. Duck and goose have a thick skin and a lot of fat under it, which renders out during cooking. Basting adds surface moisture that can create steam and prevent the skin from drying and crisping, so it’s not needed for these birds. Instead, you rely on dry heat and fat rendering to keep the meat juicy and the skin crackling. The other birds listed are leaner or have less inherent moisture, so they often benefit from basting to stay juicy, which is why they don’t fit the statement as well.