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BC Conservation Data Centre: Species Summary


Branta bernicla
Brant

 
Scientific Name: Branta bernicla (Linnaeus, 1758)
English Name: Brant
 
Classification / Taxonomy
Scientific Name - Concept Reference: American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in The Auk]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.
Classification Level: Species
Species Group: Vertebrate Animal
Species Code: B-BRAN
Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family
Animalia Craniata Aves Anseriformes Anatidae
   
Conservation Status / Legal Designation
Global Status: G5 (Apr 2016)
Provincial Status: S3M (Mar 2015)
BC List: Blue
Provincial FRPA list:   
Provincial Wildlife Act:
COSEWIC Status:
SARA Schedule:
General Status Canada: 4 - Secure (2005)
Migratory Bird Convention Act: Y
   
Ecology & Life History
General Description: A small goose. Head, neck, back, and upper breast basically all black, with a small white necklace (absent in juveniles in summer and fall). Belly dark to pale gray. Dark taill surrounded by white coverts. Wingspan around 42 inches (107 cm).
Global Reproduction Comments: Egg laying occurs in June-July. Female incubates an average of 3-4 eggs for 22-26 days. Male stands guard. Individual females produce up to one brood each year (do not renest if first attempt fails). Nestlings are precocial, tended by both adults, sometimes congregate in large creches, fledge in 45-50 days, remain with adults until following spring. Some first breed at two years, most at three years. Lifelong pair bond. Nesting often occurs in loose colonies. Large numbers of subadults and nonbreeders concentrate around nesting colonies and other areas during nesting season and molt period (Johnson and Herter 1989). Brant are long lived. Some live 20-25 years.
Global Ecology Comments: Storms accompanied by high tides may destroy large numbers of nests (Johnson and Herter 1989). The arctic fox is the most important predator of eggs and young in the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta colonies, where glaucous gulls and parasitic jaegers also take eggs and young (Derksen and Ward 1993).

Flightless period during summer molt lasted 23-24 days in northern Alaska (Taylor 1995, Auk 112:904-919).
Migration Characteristics:
(Global / Provincial)		 
    Nonmigrant:
    Local Migrant:
    Distant Migrant:
    Within Borders Migrant: 		N /
N /
Y /
na /
Global Migration Comments: Spring migration in western North America occurs during a 4-month period starting in mid-February (Derksen and Ward 1993). Spring migration also may begin in February in the eastern United States. Migrants arrive in nesting areas between late May and early June.

Southward migration begins around mid-August in the west, late August-early September in the east. Adults with fledged young follow traditional routes from breeding areas to fall migration staging sites (in western North America-Asia, along the Siberian, Beaufort, Cuckchi, and Bering seas) (Derksen and Ward 1993). Migrants arrive along the U.S. Atlantic coast in mid-October.

Entire or majority of east Pacific brant population congregates in April and August-September at Izembek Lagoon on Alaska Peninsula. Fall departure from the lagoon occurs with favorable winds in late October or early November; these birds arrive in Baja California within 60-95 hours of their departure from Alaska (Derksen and Ward 1993).

Pale-bellied brant breeding in northeastern Canadian arctic winter in Ireland. Those wintering on the U.S. Atlantic coast breed on Southhampton Island and Foxe Basin. The pale-bellied form that breeds chiefly on high arctic islands in Canada winters in the Puget Sound area. Majority of dark-bellied western brant from northwestern Canada and Alaska winter farther south on the Pacific coast, mainly in Mexico (see Shields 1990). See Johnson and Herter (1989) for many further details on migration.
Habitats:
(Type / Subtype / Dependence) 		Ocean / Eelgrass Beds / Facultative - frequent use
Ocean / Intertidal Marine / Facultative - frequent use
Ocean / Kelp Bed / Facultative - occasional use
Ocean / Sheltered Waters - Marine / Facultative - frequent use
Ocean / Subtidal Marine / Facultative - frequent use
Other Unique Habitats / Estuary / Facultative - frequent use
Other Unique Habitats / Mudflats - Intertidal / Facultative - occasional use
Global Habitat Comments: In winter, this species occurs primarily in marine situations that are marshy, along lagoons and estuaries, and on shallow bays (AOU 1998), often in areas with eelgrass (e.g., see Wilson and Atkinson 1995). Areas dominated by large freshwater lakes and estuaries provide important summer molting areas (Derksen and Ward 1993).

Nesting occurs mostly on coastal tundra, in low and barren terrain; on islands, deltas, lakes, and sandy areas among puddles and shallows, and in vegetated uplands. In western North America, preferred nest sites are one peninsulas or islets in large wetland complexes, some of which are subject to tidal action (Derksen and Ward 1993). Nests are on the ground in a depression lined, or built up, with mosses and lichens. Adults with broods move from colony sites to rearing habitats along tidal flats (Derksen and Ward 1993).
Food Habits: Herbivore: Adult, Immature
Invertivore: Adult, Immature
Global Food Habits Comments: Winter diet includes eelgrass, sea lettuce (ULVA) and sea cabbage (ENTEROMORPHA). Summer diet: grasses, algae, mosses, other plants. Also eats marine invertebrates. Creeping alkali grass and Hoppner sedge are important foods for adults and developing young in breeding areas in western North America (Derksen and Ward 1993). Accumulates nutritional reserves in winter and in staging areas; important foods in western North American staging areas include eelgrass, sea lettuce, and other marine algae; also eats roe of Pacific herring, crustaceans, and mollusks (Derksen and Ward 1993).
Global Phenology: Diurnal: Adult, Immature
Provincial Phenology:
(1st half of month/
2nd half of month)
Colonial Breeder: Y
Length(cm)/width(cm)/Weight(g): 64/ / 1370
Elevation (m) (min / max): Global: 
Provincial: 
   
 
Distribution
Endemic: N
Global Range Comment: The breeding range encompasses arctic North America and eastern Russia. In winter, brant occur along the Pacific coast from Alaska to Baja California and mainland Mexico, along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to North Carolina (mainly New Jersey to North Carolina), and from the British Isles to the Mediterranean area and south to coastal China.

BREEDS: arctic North America and Russia: Prince Patrick and Melville islands in the western Canadian high arctic and the Beaufort Sea islands to the coastal plain of Canada and Alaska, with small colonies on the north side of the Chukotka Peninsula in Russia and on Wrangel Island (Derksen and Ward 1993). In western North America, about 80% of the total black brant population nests in four major colonies on the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta in western Alaska (Derkson and Ward 1993). WINTERS: in North America, along the Pacific coast from Alaska to Baja California and mainland Mexico, along Atlantic from Massachusetts to North Carolina (mainly New Jersey to North Carolina); from British Isles to Mediterranean area, south to coastal China; occasional in Hawaii. A major shift in the winter distribution in western North America occurred during the 1950s and 1960s, with increased numbers using lagoons along the Mexican mainland and much decreased numbers wintering in California; since the mid-1960s, more than 80% of the counted winter population has occurred in Mexico (Derksen and Ward 1993). In the 1980s, an average of several thousand wintered in the Izembek Lagoon area of the Alaska Peninsula (Derksen and Ward 1993). Kasegaluk Lagoon on the Chukchi Sea in northwestern Alaska is an important migration stop during southward migration; as much as 49% of the entire Pacific flyway population may use the lagoon (Johnson 1993). Izembek Lagoon on the Alaska Peninsula is a critically important stop in spring and late summer, hosting at least the majority of the eastern Pacific population (Johnson and Herter 1989); nearly the entire black brant population spends as long as nine weeks there before departing for wintering areas to the south (Derksen and Ward 1993). Important summer molting areas occur on Alaska's north slope and Wrangel Island (Derksen and Ward 1993).
 
Authors / Contributors
Global Information Author: Hammerson, G.
Last Updated: Jan 29, 2010
Provincial Information Author:
Last Updated:
   
References and Related Literature
American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1983. Check-list of North American Birds, 6th edition. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 877 pp.
Anthony, R. M., P. L. Flint, and J. S. Sedinger. 1991. Arctic fox removal improves nest success of black brant. Wildl. Soc. Bull. 19:176-184.
Campbell, R.W., N.K. Dawe, I.McT. Cowan, J.M. Cooper, G. Kaiser, and M.C.E. McNall. 1990. The Birds of British Columbia, Vol. 1. Nonpasserines: Introduction, Loons through Waterfowl. Royal B.C. Mus. in association with Environ. Can., Can. Wildl. Serv. 514pp.
Carter, M., C. Hunter, D. Pashley, and D. Petit. 1998. The Watch List. Bird Conservation, Summer 1998:10.
Derksen, D. V., and D. H. Ward. 1993. Life history habitat needs of the black brant. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Waterfowl Management Handbook, Fish and Wildlife Leaflet 13.1.15. 6 pp.
Di Silvestro, R. L., editor. 1986. Audubon wildlife report1986. National Audubon Society, New York. 1094 pp. [available from Academic Press, San Diego, CA]
Einarsen, A. S. 1966. Black brant: sea goose of the Pacific coast. Univ. Washington Press. 160 pp.
Godfrey, W.E. 1966. The birds of Canada. National Museums of Canada. Ottawa. 428 pp.
Harrison, C. 1978. A Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio.
Johnson, S. R. 1993. An important early-autumn staging area for Pacific Flyway brant: Kasegaluk Lagoon, Chukchi Sea, Alaska. J. Field Ornithol. 64:539-548.
Johnson, S. R. and D. R. Herter. 1989. The Birds of the Beaufort Sea. BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., Anchorage, Alaska. 372 pp.
Kortright, F.H. 1967. The ducks, geese, and swans of North America. The Stackpole Company, Harrisburg, PA, and Wildlife Management Institute, Washington, D.C. 476 pp.
Pratt, H. D., P. L. Bruner, and D. G. Berrett. 1987. A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. 409 pp. + 45 plates.
Raveling, D. G. 1989. Nest-predation rates in relation to colony size of black brant. J. Wildl. Manage. 53:87-90.
Root, T. 1988. Atlas of wintering North American birds: An analysis of Christmas Bird Count data. University of Chicago Press. 336 pp.
Shields, G. F. 1990. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA of Pacific black brant (Branta bernicla nigricans). Auk 107:620-623.
Terres, J. K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
Wilson, U. W., and J. B. Atkinson. 1995. Black brant winter and spring-staging use at two Washington coastal areas in relation to eelgrass abundance. Condor 97:91-98.
 

Please visit the website Conservation Status Ranks for definitions of the data fields used in this summary report.

Suggested Citation:

B.C. Conservation Data Centre. 2010. Species Summary: Branta bernicla. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Available: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/ (accessed Jun 25, 2026).