29-539: Branta bernicla Branta canadensis Branta hutchinsii Branta leucopsis Branta ruficollis Branta sandvicensis and see text Nesochen Salvadori , 1895 The black geese of the genus Branta are waterfowl belonging to the true geese and swans subfamily Anserinae . They occur in the northern coastal regions of the Palearctic and all over North America , migrating to more southerly coasts in winter, and as resident birds in
58-462: A population of birds breeding in central Arctic Canada (mainly Melville Island ), and wintering on Puget Sound on the American west coast around the U.S./Canada border. These birds are intermediate in appearance between black brant and pale-bellied brant, having brown upperparts and grey underparts which give less of a contrast with the white flank patch. It has also been proposed that, rather than being
87-561: A separate subspecies, it is actually a result of interbreeding between these two forms, given that this population exhibits mixed characters. Individual birds when wintering generally remain in loose family-groups, together with others of the same sub-species, but there is overlap in some areas (for example Western Europe, see above); and this is also true in the breeding colonies. Outside the breeding season, individuals with characteristics of any subspecies may occasionally turn up with regular migrants, and there has been debate as to whether this
116-508: A small but significant area, le havre de Regnéville, centered on the Sienne Estuary in Manche (Northern France). In Ireland it is recorded in winter from a number of areas including Lough Foyle , Strangford Lough , Tralee Bay and Castlemaine Harbour . The black form B. b. nigricans appears blackish-brown and white in colour. This form is a very contrastingly black and white bird, with
145-598: A uniformly dark sooty-brown back, similarly coloured underparts (with the dark colour extending furthest back of the three forms) and a prominent white flank patch; it also has larger white neck patches, forming a near-complete collar. The population of about 125,000 breeds in northwestern Canada, Alaska and eastern Siberia , and winters mostly on the west coast of North America from southern Alaska to California , but also some in east Asia, mainly Japan, also Korea and China. The population has been as high as 200,000 in 1981, and as low as 100,000 in 1987. The Asian populations of
174-759: Is a Latinised form of Old Norse Brandgás meaning burnt as in "burnt (black) goose". The type species is the brant goose ( Branta bernicla ). Ottenburghs and colleagues published a study in 2016 that established the phylogenetic relationships between the species. Brant ( Branta bernicla ) Red-breasted goose ( Branta ruficollis ) Nene ( Branta sandvicensis ) Canada goose ( Branta canadensis ) Barnacle goose ( Branta leucopsis ) Cackling goose ( Branta hutchinsii ) The genus contains six living species . [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Two species have been described from subfossil remains found in
203-644: Is about 250,000, with the main population breeding in northeastern Canada and wintering along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. from Maine to Georgia , and two smaller populations, one breeding in Franz Josef Land , Svalbard , and northeastern Greenland and wintering in Denmark, northeast England, and Scotland, and the other breeding in the far-northeastern Canadian islands and wintering in Ireland, southwest England, and in
232-506: Is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies. Branta rhuax Branta rhuax , the giant Hawaiʻi goose , is an extinct goose endemic to the island of Hawaiʻi . It was initially described as the monotypic genus Geochen , but then reassigned to Branta by Storrs L. Olson in 2013 after reexamination of
261-544: Is pure white, and the tail black and very short (the shortest of any goose). The body of the dark-bellied nominate subspecies B. b. bernicla is fairly uniformly dark grey-brown all over, the flanks and belly not significantly paler than the back. The head and neck are black, with a small white patch on either side of the neck. With a population of about 250000, it breeds on the Arctic coasts of central and western Siberia and winters in coastal areas of western Europe, with over half
290-443: Is related to migration routing accidents, or to breeding range overlap, or even interbreeding. The brant goose was strictly coastal bird in winter, rarely leaving tidal estuaries , where it feeds on eelgrass ( Zostera marina ) and the seaweed , sea lettuce ( Ulva ). On the east coast of North America, the inclusion of sea lettuce is a recent change to their diet, brought about by a blight on eelgrass in 1931. This resulted in
319-627: The Hawaiian Islands . Alone in the Southern Hemisphere , a self-sustaining feral population derived from introduced Canada geese is also found in New Zealand . The black geese derive their vernacular name for the prominent areas of black coloration found in all species. They can be distinguished from all other true geese by their legs and feet, which are black or very dark grey. Furthermore, they have black bills and large areas of black on
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#1732844181111348-480: The grey geese (genus Anser ) which share the same general area of occurrence, not being found far inland even in winter (except for occasional stray birds or individuals escaped from captivity). This does not hold true for the American and Pacific species, in whose ranges grey geese are, for the most part, absent. The genus Branta was introduced by the Austrian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1769. The name
377-492: The moa-nalos , enormous goose-like dabbling ducks , are completely undeterminable at present. Several fossil species of Branta have been described. Since the true geese are hardly distinguishable by anatomical features, the allocation of these to this genus is somewhat uncertain. A number of supposed prehistoric grey geese have been described from North America , partially from the same sites as species assigned to Branta . Whether these are correctly assigned – meaning that
406-430: The 12th century. Gerald of Wales claimed to have seen these birds hanging down from pieces of timber, William Turner accepted the theory, and John Gerard claimed to have seen the birds emerging from their shells. This myth arose because in the 1100s the migration of birds was unknown, but it was known that none of these birds was ever seen nesting, nor were eggs found, nor were goslings seen. The legend persisted until
435-466: The Hawaiian Islands, where they became extinct in prehistoric times: The relationships of the enigmatic Geochen rhuax , formerly known only from parts of a single bird's skeleton damaged due to apparently dying in a lava flow, were long unresolved. After reexamination of the subfossil material and comparisons with other subfossil bones from the island of Hawaiʻi assigned to the genus Branta , it
464-404: The black brant populations had previously been regarded as a separate subspecies B. b. orientalis based on purported paler upperparts coloration; however, it is generally now believed that this is not correct, and they are assigned to B. b. nigricans . A fourth form (sometimes known as the 'gray-bellied brant) has been proposed, although no formal subspecies description has been made as yet, for
493-400: The end of the 18th century. In County Kerry , until relatively recently, Catholics could eat this bird on a Friday because it counted as fish. Three subspecies are recognised: The brant is a small goose with a short, stubby bill. It measures 55–66 cm (22–26 in) long, 106–121 cm (42–48 in) across the wings and weighs 0.88–2.2 kg (1.9–4.9 lb). The under-tail
522-404: The genus Anser was once much more widespread than today and that it coexisted with Branta in freshwater habitat which it today does only most rarely – is not clear. Especially in the case of B. dickeyi and B. howardae , doubts have been expressed about its correct generic assignment. The former "Branta" minuscula is now placed with the prehistoric American shelducks, Anabernicula . On
551-418: The head and neck, with white (ochre in one species) markings that can be used to tell apart most species. As with most geese, their undertail and uppertail coverts are white. They are also on average smaller than other geese, though some very large taxa are known, which rival the swan goose and the black-necked swan in size. The Eurasian species of black geese have a more coastal distribution compared to
580-468: The high-Arctic tundra. The Brent oilfield was named after the species. The brant was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Anas bernicla . Linnaeus specified the type locality as Europe but in 1761 restricted it to Sweden. The brant is now one of six species placed in the genus Branta that
609-649: The lava. The specific epithet comes from the Greek rhuax (lava stream). The holotype is a fragmentary right tibiotarsus (USNM V16740) held by the United States National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. It was the first fossil bird to be described from the Hawaiian Islands. In his 1943 description Wetmore opined that the bird most resembled the Cape Barren goose of southern Australia , and
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#1732844181111638-615: The near-extirpation of the brant. The few that survived changed their diet to include sea lettuce until the eelgrass eventually began to return. Brants have maintained this diet ever since as a survival strategy. A similar collapse in eelgrass in Ireland in the 1930s also negatively impacted the population. In recent decades, it has started using agricultural land a short distance inland, feeding extensively on grass and winter-sown cereals . It has been suggested that they learnt this behaviour by following other species of geese. Food resource pressure may also be important in forcing this change, as
667-525: The other hand, a goose fossil from the Early-Middle Pleistocene of El Salvador is highly similar to Anser and given its age and biogeography it is likely to belong to that genus or Branta . Branta bernicla Anas bernicla Linnaeus, 1758 The brant or brent goose ( Branta bernicla ) is a small goose of the genus Branta . There are three subspecies, all of which winter along temperate-zone sea-coasts and breed on
696-428: The population in southern England, the rest between northern Germany and south-western France. The pale-bellied form B. b. hrota appears blackish-brown and light grey in colour. The body is different shades of grey-brown all over, the flanks and belly are significantly paler than the back and present a marked contrast. The head and neck are black, with a small white patch on either side of the neck. The total population
725-571: The subfossil material. The bird was described in 1943 by Alexander Wetmore from subfossil remains originally discovered in 1926, in the course of a public works excavation of a water supply tunnel. The bones were found at a depth of 25 m beneath a prehistoric lava flow, on top of an ash bed, near Kaumaikeohu, above Pahala in the Kau District of the Island of Hawaiʻi . The bones are friable and warped, having been subjected to intense heat from
754-519: The world population increased over 10-fold 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 near a small pond. The brant is listed as a species of "Least Concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It
783-430: Was about the same size. However, subsequently Olson and James (1991) considered that the available material was too imperfect for determining the affinities so precisely and that the relationships of the bird would remain doubtful until further specimens were obtained. The type material was later reexamined and determined to be the same species as an unnamed large, flightless, extinct Branta goose known from elsewhere on
812-433: Was introduced in 1769 by the Austrian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli . The genus name Branta is a Latinised form of Old Norse brandgás , "burnt (black) goose". The specific epithet bernicla is Medieval Latin for barnacle . The brant and the similar barnacle goose were previously considered to be the same species and believed to be the same creature as the barnacle. That myth can be dated back to at least
841-471: Was redescribed as Branta rhuax in 2013. While a presumed relation between B. rhuax and the shelducks , proposed by Lester Short in 1970, has thus been refuted, bones of a shelduck-like bird have been found more recently on Kaua‘i. Whether this latter anatid was indeed a shelduck is presently undetermined. Similarly, two bones found on Oʻahu indicate the erstwhile presence of a gigantic waterfowl on this island. Its relationships relative to this genus and
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