Brant

Dark brownish-black head, neck, and chest with a distinctive small white neck patch (collars vary by subspecies). Upperparts are brownish-grey, underparts vary from pale grey to dark slate-grey depending on the subspecies, contrasting sharply with a bright white undertail and rump.

Small size, completely dark head and neck, contrasting white neck collar (incomplete in some races), dark brownish body, and bright white undertail coverts.

Length: 55-66 cm (22-26 inches), Wingspan: 106-121 cm (42-48 inches), Weight: 1.1-2.2 kg (2.4-4.8 lbs).

A low, throaty, grunting or barking 'cronk' or 'rraah', often given in flight or when disturbed.

Primarily vegetarian, feeding on eelgrass, sea lettuce, algae, and sometimes grazing on salt marsh grasses and agricultural fields.

Coastal bays, estuaries, salt marshes, mudflats, and tundra during the breeding season.

Strongly migratory, traveling in large flocks along coastal flyways from Arctic breeding grounds to temperate wintering areas.

Nests on the Arctic tundra near water, making a shallow depression lined with plant material and down. Lays 3 to 5 creamy-white eggs.

Cackling Goose and Canada Goose, but Brant are significantly smaller, much darker overall, and lack the prominent white cheek patches.

Brant heavily utilize eelgrass beds in marine environments, playing a key role in coastal ecosystems and nutrient cycling, though intense grazing can impact local aquatic vegetation.

Least Concern, with stable or increasing population trends globally.

Look for them in large flocks along sheltered marine bays, estuaries, and mudflats during low tide when they feed on exposed eelgrass and marine algae.

Brant have an incredible reliance on eelgrass; historical declines in eelgrass populations due to disease caused massive crashes in Brant populations in the 1930s.