The Brent Goose

The Brent Goose, Branta bernicia, is one of the smaller members of the goose family, and is often mistaken for a duck. In most cases an adult Brent Goose will only be 60cm in length. Despite now being commonly referred to as the Brent Goose, it should in reality be referred to as the Brant Goose, as the Latin names suggests.

There are normally said to be three different subspecies of the Brent or Brant Goose; the Dark-bellied Brant Goose, Pale-bellied Brant Goose, and Black Brant.

Brent Goose - Andreas Trepte - CC-BY-SA-2.5

The Dark-bellied variety is predominantly grey-brown in colour, with black head, and white patches on its neck. The Pale-bellied bird though has a light greyness to it, with a definite lightning of the goose’s flanks. As the name might suggest, the Black Brant is black, or at least blackish-brown although there is a striking contrast with the white flanks and neck.

The Brent Goose, including all three subspecies, though is renowned for having the shortest tail of any goose. All of the geese also have short, stubby bills as well.

There is some debate the origin of Branta as a name, although it is commonly thought to have come from the old Norse word, brandt, which relates to burnt, and the blackness of the Brent Goose.
The Brent Goose is a bird that breeds in the far north, around the various Arctic coastlines. The Dark-bellied Brant goose breeds around the Siberian coastline, the Pale-bellied Brant goose around Greenland and Canada, with the Black Brant found all around the Arctic. Each though has a favoured wintering area, the Dark-bellied goose flies south to Europe, the Black Brant prefers North America and the Pale-bellied flies to both Europe and America.

As the Brent Goose flies south, it is notable that it doesn’t fly in close knit formations like other geese but is flies as a loose flock. The flight south leaves behind the shallow pools of the tundra, and is replaced with coastline and estuaries for the winter. In the United Kingdom much of the east coast sees the presence of the Brent Goose from October to March, with concentrations at places like Lindisfarne and the Wash.

Brent Goose - Tim Bowman - USFWS

The wintering areas have been traditionally areas with a large amount of eelgrass, the Brent geese’s preferred food. It does though also appear that the birds have adapted to the decline amounts of eelgrass and have started to feed on residual crops in farmer’s fields.

Amongst the world’s geese population, the Brent Goose is comparatively rare, at an estimated 215000 birds. This is a huge recovered from the estimated 16500 of the late 1950s, but with continuing threats to estuaries and their favoured food of eelgrass, a future threat remains.

A regular visitor to many northern coastlines during the winter months, the Brent Goose adds a variety to many populations of bird life, and will often be seen mixing with other geese and birds. It is though a bird that is often overlooked when near to bigger forms of geese, but should be treasured just the same.

Copyright - First Published 3rd March 2010