Range Circumpolar. Brant breeds in arctic North America and Eurasia. In North America, winters along the Pacific coast from southern Alaska and the Queen Charlotte Islands to Baja California and along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to North Carolina.

Status Abundant to very abundant spring migrant, rare summer visitant, rare autumn migrant and common to abundant local winter visitant along the coast. Formerly very abundant in winter. Very rare in the interior.

Status Change During the past 100 years, the Brant has declined drastically as a wintering species in British Columbia. In the late 1800s, Fannin (1891) considered Brant an "abundant winter resident." Recollections of a former market hunter, summarized by Leach (1982), best illustrate the populations that were present before the twentieth century. When Henry Weaver, a market hunter, began fowling in 1895 at the age of 14: the shores of Mud Bay and Boundary Bay were at times solid with flocks of [Black] Brant. They came in so continuously to decoys that on one occasion he and eight other hunters took turns shooting from a single blind and picked up 128 birds in the course of a few hours. Leach also mentions: Market hunters on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland [Fraser River delta] were especially busy in December shooting large numbers of Brant for sale at Christmas, when they fetched 50 cents a brace. A market hunter named Franklin shipped two sacks of Brant on a twice-weekly boat to Victoria and others to Vancouver. In one good year, he and a companion sold 2,500 Brant to Pat Burns and Company before New Year's Day. By the 1920s, Brooks and Swarth(1925) describe the Brant as a "common winter visitant to the coast . . . in former years more generally distributed than at present." By the mid-1940s, the Brant was still considered a winter visitant, but much more abundant as a spring transient (Munro, J.A. and Cowan 1947). The decline of wintering Brant continued during the next 30 years; this is well documented by annual surveys and censuses, mostly from the Queen Charlotte Islands and Boundary Bay. The population of Brant at Masset in January 1952 was estimated at 1,000 birds (Leopold and Smith 1953). Today (1986), flocks of up to 6 birds are reported there infrequently. However, annual Christmas Bird Counts at Skidegate Inlet (90 km to the south) have shown an increase from 129 birds in 1982 to 283 in 1984, and some birds are frequently seen on the Yakoun River estuary and at Sandspit. The decline is also documented in the vicinity of Boundary Bay. In December 1944 and 1946, at least 500 Brant were counted off Crescent Beach (Holdom 1945, 1947). Numbers peaked there at 1,000+ birds on 14 January 1947, but by 1951 they had decreased to about 200 birds (Munro, D.A. 1952). Christmas Bird Counts at Ladner from 1957 to 1984 also show a decline in the average wintering population. Numbers dropped from 600 to 83 birds between 1960 and 1962. The decline continued to 4 birds in 1983; none were found in 1984. Between 1975 and 1984, the winter population, based on Christmas Bird Counts at Skidegate Inlet, Ladner, and White Rock (Surrey), averaged only 28 birds per count (n=23). During the past 30 years, the proportion of Brant that winter along the Pacific coast north of Baja California declined from 50% to 65% of the population to less than 10% (Kramer et al. 1979). That decline coincided with increasing numbers of Brant wintering in Baja California and along the west coast of Mexico (see Smith, R.H. and Jensen 1970). The population shift was attributed to harassment and disturbance of birds by people (Denson 1964). Winter surveys, however, from 1951 to 1974, indicate the population along the Pacific coast has remained relatively stable at 140,000 birds (Smith, R.H. and Jensen 1970; Bellrose 1976). In 1987 the population was reported to be 146,992 birds (Conant 1988). Of those, 116,696 were counted in Mexico, 8,385 in Alaska, and 21,911 at other locations. OCCURRENCE: The Brant is widely distributed along coastal British Columbia, particularly the inner coast; it is rarely found in the interior. It occurs principally on estuaries, beaches, bays, lagoons, and mud flats. It is extremely rare any distance from the ocean. In British Columbia, it occurs chiefly as a spring migrant, during which time thousands are widespread along the coast littoral. Some of that northward movement, however, occurs well offshore (see Martin and Myers 1969; Hatter et al. 1978). Spring populations build in California bays in early January and peak in mid-March (Moffit 1939). Spring migration occurs from late February through mid-May and peaks in late March and early April in extreme southern British Columbia. Aerial counts at Boundary Bay during the spring of 1958 (Taylor, E.W. 1959) show a rapid build-up to a peak in late March followed by a gradual decline throughout April and May. Similar trends have been noted at the Little Qualicum River estuary (Dawe 1980), following a Pacific herring spawn there, while near Campbell River the peak movement occurs slightly later. Most of the spring movement is visible passing northward up the Strait of Georgia. Areas of concentration are Boundary Bay and the east coast of Vancouver Island from Victoria to Campbell River. Daily fluctuations of numbers there probably indicate a continual turnover of migrants. E.W. Taylor (1959) notes that spring migration in the Boundary Bay area appears to be more gradual than in other areas of concentration in the Pacific Northwest. Small numbers, usually individuals but occasionally flocks of up to 200, may occur in summer on estuaries and bays, along the coast. Flocks reported in June are probably non-breeding wanderers. First-year birds add common in north-bound flocks into late June (T. Tolish pets. Grimm.). Fall migrants are rare along the British Columbia coast. Most of the population stages at Izembek Lagoon, Alaska and then departs en masse offshore, in a rapid, direct flight to wintering grounds in Mexico (Hansen and Nelson 1957; Jones, R.D. 1973). Small numbers of Brant occur along the British Columbia coast from late August through October. Those birds are likely nonbreeding adults or immatures. Occasionally, the direct autumn flight from Alaska is witnessed at sea off Vancouver Island. R.D Jones (pers. comm.) suggests that migration routes illustrated by Einarsen (1965) and Bellrose (1976) should be modified. He contends that wind conditions prevailing at the time the southward migration occurs are such that great turbulence would be encountered if the birds swung as far east as those routes show. Moreover, Einarsen and Bellrose indicate coastal travel over at least a part of the trip, which is contrary to what Moffit (1939) observed. Jones contends that since westerly winds blow around the north side of the Pacific High, the majority of birds fly a strictly seaward route south on the back quadrant of a low centre to pick up the westerlies and fly favourable winds to Baja. Only small numbers of Brant now winter in British Columbia; Masset and Skidegate inlets alone support sizeable winter populations. Flocks of Brant that appear in British Columbia in February and March are composed almost entirely of mated pairs. W.T. Munro (1979b) shows that 90% of the Brant harvested in the province are adults. The late winter/early spring hunting seasons in British Columbia, when in effect, concentrate the kill on birds that would soon be nesting. The distribution of Brant in the province is closely related to the distribution of eel-grass (Zostera marina) which is the Brant's most important food (Cottam et al. 1944). Examination of gut contents from 50 Brant shot by hunters in Boundary Bay in early March 1988 showed that 94% of the diet (by volume) was Z. marina, the remaining plant food being Z. japonicus, a smaller, non-indigenous eelgrass; trace amounts of Pacific herring eggs were found in some birds (A. Reed pers. comm.). Observations in the Qualicum Beach and other areas indicate that the algae, sea lettuce (Ulva lactuca), is taken in large quantities later on during spring migration.

Nonbreeding Not available

Breeding Nests Eggs Nest Success Not available

Nests:  Not available Eggs: Not available Nest Success: Not available

Remarks Two well-marked forms occur in British Columbia. B. b. nigricans (Black Brant), the common subspecies, breeds in northeastern Siberia, Alaska, and western subarctic Canada. Band recoveries and visual observations indicate that virtually all of the birds overwintering in British Columbia are of that subspecies (A. Reed pers. comm.). A light-bellied form intermediate between B. b. nigricans and B. b. hrota (Atlantic Brant), which breeds in the islands of the Canadian western high arctic (Boyd and Maltby 1979), also migrates past coastal British Columbia en route to its main wintering haunt in Padilla Bay, Washington; it occasionally occurs in small numbers during spring migration in Boundary Bay and along the eastern coast of Vancouver Island (A. Reed pers. comm.). A bibliography on Brant, with emphasis on B. b. nigricans, is presented by Hout (1967). Known in Old World literature as Brent Goose. POSTSCRIPT: Recent observations during spring migration on the east coast of Vancouver Island have been reported by Dawe and Nygren (1989). In the Parksville-Qualicum Beach area, Brant spent time preening and apparently feeding well out in the Strait of Georgia during high tide. As the tide began to drop, small flocks would arrive on the newly exposed bars and sandflats where they routinely began maintenance activities followed by feeding activity as the tide receded. The highest numbers were usually counted about 2 hours after high tide. Although there was an obvious movement of Brant, 30 individually marked birds were observed in the area for at least 2 weeks; 4 birds stayed between 30 and 45 days. Brant from at least two separate breeding populations were noted in the area: some from the Yukon-Kuskokwim River deltas and some from the Teshekpuk Lake area of northern Alaska.