Brant Goose Facts

Latin: Branta bernicla

Average length: M 25", F 23"

Average weight: M 3.4 lbs., F 3.1 lbs.

Description: In North America, two subspecies of brant are perceived, for the most part because of contrasts in plumage attributes. Atlantic or Pacific (dark) brant are differentiated into sub populations possessing different goes and having hereditary variety. Brant are little, dull geese that have huge wings, which provide for them their trademark solid flight. 

Brant have short necks, little heads and bills. All subspecies have a zit, bill, bosom, primaries, tail and legs. The generally dark neck has an arrangement of white striations, called a jewelry, close to the center. The color of the stomach differs as per subspecies and sub population. Both genders are indistinguishable in plumage, with the exception of that the male's white neckband is bigger than the female's.

Breeding: Brant regularly settle in detached provinces in cold North America and Russia. They breed on the beachfront tundra, on low and desolate landscape; on islands, deltas, lakes, and sandy ranges among puddles and shallows and in vegetated uplands. To evade predation, brant regularly fabricate settles on little seaward islands, on islands in little lakes or on rock spits. Folks are reinforced for life and both have a tendency to homes and adolescent. Female brant lay a normal of 5 eggs.

Migrating and Wintering:In North America, brant winter along the Pacific coast from Alaska to Baja California and terrain Mexico, and along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to North Carolina (fundamentally from New Jersey to North Carolina). Since the mid-1960s, more than 80 percent of the tallied winter populace from Russia, Japan and North America has happened in Baja California and different parts of northwest Mexico. Brant winter fundamentally in marine territories that are muddy, along tidal ponds and estuaries and on shallow sounds. Territory utilization is regularly constrained by the accessibility of eelgrass, a staple of the brant eating regimen.

Population: There are right now two populaces of brant perceived in North America: Pacific and Atlantic. The Pacific (or dark) brant have displayed a noteworthy descending pattern from 1964 to 1992 and give off an impression of being underneath memorable populace levels. Brant are unequivocally reliant upon specific sustenances and accordingly the populace is defenseless against misfortunes because of starvation and transitory rearing disappointment.

The Migrations of BRANT GOOSE

The extent of the migrations of this species remains as yet unknown. Its progress along our Atlantic shores in October, November, and December, is varied, and in a great measure uncertain, it being apparently induced to tarry or to proceed by the changes which may happen in the temperature. It in fact appears to remain along the coast until forced away by the intensity of the cold, when it resumes its flight, and removes to countries beyond the southern limits of the United States. 

The Brant Goose may be considered as a salt-water bird, for it never ascends our rivers beyond the influence of the tides, nor is found on inland lakes or ponds, unless it be wounded, and happen to alight accidentally in such places. To this natural predilection for salt-water may be attributed its habit of flying round the projections of capes and headlands: it very seldom passing directly over a neck of land, unless suddenly surprised and alarmed by the gunner.

Brant Goose

The Brant or Brent Goose, Branta bernicla, is a species of goose of the genus Branta. The Black Brant is an American subspecies. The specific descriptor bernicla is from the same source as "barnacle" in Barnacle Goose, which looks similar but is not a close relation.

Brant Goose

Habitat

It used to be a strictly coastal bird in winter, seldom leaving tidal estuaries, where it feeds on eel-grass (Zostera marina) and the seaweed, sea lettuce (Ulva). In recent decades, it has started using agricultural land a short distance inland, feeding extensively on grass and winter-sown cereals. This may be behaviour learnt by following other species of geese. Food resource pressure may also be important in forcing this change, as the world population has risen over tenfold to 400,000-500,000 by the mid 1980s, possibly reaching the carrying capacity of the estuaries. In the breeding season, it uses low-lying wet coastal tundra for both breeding and feeding. The nest is bowl-shaped, lined with grass and down, in an elevated location, often in a small pond.

The Brant Goose is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.