Branta

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Genus of birds

title: "Branta" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["branta", "bird-genera", "geese", "anatidae", "extant-miocene-first-appearances", "taxa-named-by-giovanni-antonio-scopoli"] description: "Genus of birds" topic_path: "general/branta" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branta" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Genus of birds ::

| fossil_range = Late Miocene-Holocene | image = Branta canadensis -Smythe Park, Toronto, Canada-8.jpg | image_caption = A Canada goose (Branta canadensis) swimming at Smythe Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada | taxon = Branta | authority = Scopoli, 1769 | type_species = Anas bernicla (Brant goose) | type_species_authority = Linnaeus, 1758 | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = Branta bernicla

Branta sandvicensis

and see text | synonyms = 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 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 the head and neck, with white (ochre in one species) markings that can be used to tell apart most species.The nēnē, which is aberrant in many respects, has no white on the head or neck and fairly little black, being quite similar to the swan goose in the color pattern of these areas, and was thus formerly assigned to the monotypic genus Nesochen. The swan goose, a grey goose, also has a black bill, but its reddish-orange legs indicate its actual relationships. 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 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.

Taxonomy

The genus Branta was introduced by the Austrian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1769. The name 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. |label1=Branta |1={{clade |1=Brant (Branta bernicla) [[File:The geese of Europe and Asia (Branta bernicla bernicla).jpg|60 px]] |2={{clade |1={{clade |1=Red-breasted goose (Branta ruficollis) [[File:The geese of Europe and Asia (Branta ruficollis).jpg|60 px]] |2={{clade |1=Nene (Branta sandvicensis) [[File:The Birds of the Sandwich Islands (Bernicla sandvicensis).jpg|60 px]] |2={{clade |1=Canada goose (Branta canadensis) [[File:Ornithologia Neerlandica (Branta canadensis).png|60 px]] |2={{clade |1=Barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) [[File:The geese of Europe and Asia (Branta leucopsis).jpg|60 px]] |2=Cackling goose (Branta hutchinsii) [[File:The geese of Europe and Asia (Branta hutchinsii).jpg|60 px]]

Species list

The genus contains six living species.

|name=Brant (U.S.) or brent goose (U.K.) |binomial=Branta bernicla |image=File:Branta bernicla bernicla - Brent Goose.jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt= |authority-name=Linnaeus|authority-year= 1758 |authority-not-original=yes |range= High Arctic tundra. Circumpolar; several distinct breeding populations, which winter in particular areas (some of which overlap) along the northern temperate zone of the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines. Some resident populations can be found in the United States and Western Europe. |range-image=File:BrantGooseMap.svg |range-image-size=180px |size= |habitat= |hunting= |iucn-status= LC |population= |direction= |subspecies={{Collapsible list |expand=yes |title=Three subspecies |bullets=on | B. b. nigricans (Lawrence, 1846) | B. b. bernicla (Linnaeus, 1758) | B. b. hrota (Müller, OF, 1776)

|name= Canada goose |binomial=Branta canadensis |image=File:Kanadagans Branta canadensis.jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt= |authority-name=Linnaeus|authority-year= 1758 |authority-not-original=yes |range= Temperate regions of North America, introduced populations in Western and northern Europe, Japan, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and the Falkland Islands |range-image=File:Branta canadensis map.png |range-image-size=180px |size= |habitat= |hunting= |iucn-status= LC |population= |direction= |subspecies={{Collapsible list |expand=yes |title=Seven subspecies |bullets=on | Atlantic Canada goose (B. c. canadensis) (Linnaeus, 1758) | Interior Canada goose (B. c. interior) (Todd, 1938) | Giant Canada goose (B. c. maxima) (Delacour, 1951) | Moffitt's Canada goose (B. c. moffitti) (Aldrich, 1946) | Vancouver Canada goose (B. c. fulva) (Delacour, 1951) | Dusky Canada goose (B. c. occidentalis) (Baird, 1858) | Lesser Canada goose (B. c. parvipes) (Cassin, 1852)

|name= Cackling goose|binomial=Branta hutchinsii |image=File:016 - CACKLING GOOSE (10-31-06) sloco, ca (8708309130).jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt= |authority-name=Richardson|authority-year= 1832 |authority-not-original=yes |range= North America, northern Canada and Alaska |range-image= |range-image-size=180px |size= |habitat= |hunting= |iucn-status= LC |population= |direction= |subspecies={{Collapsible list |expand=yes |title=Four or five subspecies |bullets=on |Richardson's cackling goose (B. h. hutchinsii) |Aleutian cackling goose (B. h. leucopareia) |Small cackling goose (B. h. minima) |Taverner's cackling goose (B. h. taverneri) |†Bering cackling goose (B. h. asiatica)[disputed]

Two species have been described from subfossil remains found in the Hawaiian Islands, where they became extinct in prehistoric times:

Nēnē-nui or wood-walking goose, Branta hylobadistes (prehistoric) :Similar but hitherto undescribed remains are also known from Kauaʻi and Oʻahu.
Giant Hawaii goose, Branta rhuax (prehistoric), formerly Geochen rhuax

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 Hawaii assigned to the genus Branta, it 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.

Similarly, two bones found on Oʻahu indicate the erstwhile presence of a gigantic waterfowl on this island. Its relationships relative to this genus and the moa-nalos, enormous goose-like dabbling ducks, are completely undeterminable at present.

Early fossil record

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.

Branta woolfendeni Bickart 1990 (Late Miocene of Arizona, USA)
Branta thessaliensis Boev & Koufos, 2006 (Late Miocene of Perivolaki, Greece)
Branta dickeyi Miller 1924 (Late Pliocene – Late Pleistocene of W USA){{cite journal | last = Short | first=Lester L. | year = 1969 | title = A new genus and species of gooselike swan from the Pliocene of Nebraska | journal = American Museum Novitates | volume = | issue = 2369 | pages = | hdl = 2246/2579
Branta esmeralda Burt 1929 (Early Pliocene of Nevada, USA)
Branta howardae Miller 1930 (Early Pliocene of California, USA)
Branta propinqua Shufeldt 1892 (Middle Pleistocene of Fossil Lake, Oregon, USA)
Branta hypsibata (Cope) 1878 (Middle Pleistocene of Fossil Lake, Oregon, USA)

The former "Branta" minuscula is now placed with the prehistoric American shelducks, Anabernicula.

Footnotes

References

Scopoli, Giovanni Antonio. (1769). "Annus Historico-Naturalis". Sumtib. C.G. Hilscheri.
Jobling, James A. (2010). "The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names". Christopher Helm.
(1979). "Check-List of Birds of the World". Museum of Comparative Zoology.
(2016). "A tree of geese: A phylogenomic perspective on the evolutionary history of True Geese". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
(2020). "Screamers, ducks, geese & swans". International Ornithologists' Union.
Olson, Storrs L.. (1991). "Descriptions of thirty-two new species of birds from the Hawaiian Islands: Part I. Non-Passeriformes". Ornithological Monographs.
Olson, Storrs L.. (2013). "Hawaii's first fossil bird: history, geological age, and taxonomic status of the extinct goose Geochen rhuax Wetmore (Aves: Anatidae).". Biological Society of Washington.
Short, Lester L.. (1970). "A new anseriform genus and species from the Nebraska Pliocene". [[Auk (journal).
(2001). "Fossil evidence for a diverse biota from Kaua'i and its transformation since human arrival". Ecological Monographs.
Bickart, K.J.. (1990). "Part I: The birds of the late Miocene–early Pliocene Big Sandy Formation, Mohave County, Arizona". Ornithological Monographs.
Miller, Loye. (1924). "''Branta dickeyi'' from the McKittrick Pleistocene". The Condor.
Miller, Loye. (1944). "Some Pliocene Birds from Oregon and Idaho". The Condor.
(1934). "Goose Footprints on a Pliocene Mud-flat". The Condor.
Howard, Hildegarde. (1931). "Pliocene Bird Remains from Santa Barbara, California". The Condor.
Miller, Loye. (1931). "Bird Remains from the Kern River Pliocene of California". The Condor.

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