ODNR Division of Wildlife - A to Z Species Guide - Brant

 Brant

Brant Brants are very much geese of the sea, and are only rare migrants in Ohio. Small numbers pass through the Great Lakes in fall migration, en route to the Atlantic Coast from their high Arctic breeding grounds. Virtually all of our records are from the shoreline of Lake Erie. As they typically occur as single birds or very small groups, and rarely vocalize in migration; this is not a species too likely to be heard in Ohio.


Listen

Brant
Branta bernicla

At-a-Glance

• Incubation: 22-26 days

• Clutch Size: 3-5 eggs

• Young Fledge: 40-50 days after hatching

• Typical Foods: plant matter and aquatic invertebrates
Description
The brant is a type of goose that is about the size of a snow goose. The head, neck, and chest are black and the body is white. The neck is about half the length of the body or less.

Habitat and Habits
The Pacific, or black brant winters south to Baja California, in the Pacific. The Atlantic race winters from Virginia northward. They inhabit rocky breakwalls, sheltered impoundments, mudflats, beaches, and grassy fields. Flight is swift, in irregular and changing flock patterns. Brants produce a rather pleasant rolling chuckle sound; distant flocks sound somewhat like barking dogs.

Reproduction and Care of the Young
Brants make their nests on tundra with large masses of moss and down. They often nest in loose colonies.