Black Brant Branta (bernicla) nigricans

The IOC World Bird List currently (version 11.2, 2021) treats all the Brent Geese (Brants) as a single species but some authorities have separated Black Brant (nigricans), Dark-bellied Brent Goose (nominate bernicla) and Pale-bellied Brent Goose (or Atlantic Brant, hrota) as distinct species. A fourth form, Grey-bellied Brent Goose, is not formally recognised although it is quite distinct. In the event that Grey-bellied Brent Goose should be formally recognised, nigricans would be assigned to it and Black Brant would become orientalis.

Some of the Black Brants that winter in western Europe have produced hybrids with Dark-bellied Brent Geese, and this makes their identification far more difficult. Separating pure adult Black Brants from pure Dark-bellied Brent Geese is fairly straightforward but hybrids can be much less so. Some hybrids can be reasonably easy, but others may be much more like either parent species - and to complicate matters further backcrossed hybrids occur as well.

In varying light conditions (or angles to the light), hybrids can morph from looking extremely similar to pure Black Brant to looking much closer to Dark-bellied Brent Goose. Equally pure Black Brants can look less than convincing in some lights, and observers of potential Black Brants (in a vagrant context, in Europe) are advised to study the bird over a prolonged period of time and in a variety of light conditions - and especially not only in bright sunshine.

Just a few photos here for now - I have lots more to add in due course...

adult Black Brant (with Dark-bellied Brent Geese), Salthouse (Norfolk, UK), 6th December 2014

This individual has a relatively reduced neck-collar and messier white flanks than a textbook Black Brant, however the upperparts and belly were very dark and the wing-coverts were distinctly brown-toned - they tend to be greyer on hybrids.

adult Black Brant (with a Canada Goose), Cley (Norfolk, UK), 26th November 2021

When I found the following bird I had seen plenty of adult Black Brants but never a first-winter. It was among a flock of Pale-bellied Brent Geese that had just landed with some Dark-bellied Brent Geese that I was already watching. The Brant stood out and I immediately suspected it was a Black Brant, but not being familiar with the plumage and not really being aware of the identification features for first-winter birds, I unfortunatley bottled the ID.

When I looked at my photos on my return to Norfolk I kicked myself for not spending longer with it as whatever it was it was clearly not a bog standard Dark or Pale-bellied Brent. However I was still unsure about it and published photos on my website captioned “presumed Dark-bellied Brent Goose” but also with a note acknowledging that it showed some characters suggesting Black Brant.

Shortly afterwards, goose-maestro James McCallum found and identified a first-winter Black Brant here in Norfolk (where first-winters are extremely rare). He then came across my photos of this Cumbrian bird and contacted me to say that he thought that it did indeed look very much like a Black Brant. It was subsequently relocated in Cumbria and was, I think, the first record of this form in Cumbria.

first-winter Black Brant, Roa Island (Cumbria, UK), 27th December 2012