Brant, Greater White-fronted and Snow Geese

Branta canadensis, B. hutchinsii, bernicla, Anser albifrons, A. caerulescens, A. canagicus

Interested in reading the “Bird Ethnography of the Chugach Region” book?

Geese

TRADITIONAL USE Eating the Bird

Description

There are several species of geese that migrate through the Chugach Region including the Canada Goose (Branta canadensis), Cackling Goose (B. hutchinsii), Brant (B. bernicla), White- fronted Goose (Anser albifrons) and Snow Goose (A. caerulescens). Brants are a common spring migrant, a rare summer visitor, and a rare fall migrant. Snow and White-fronted Geese are common migrants; the latter almost exclusively use the Bering River and Copper River Delta area. Cackling Geese regularly migrate offshore and around the Kenai Peninsula, sometimes associated with Brant, particularly in the spring. The Emperor Goose (A. canagicus) is a rare migrant and rare winter visitor to the Chugach Region (Isleib and Kessel 1973). Several thousand Canada Geese have been “short-stopped” in the Anchorage area where they have become resident birds that are often perceived as urban nuisances as well as hazards to low-flying aircraft.

Emperor Goose

Illustration by Christalina Jager from the Native Village of Port Graham, Alaska

Only two species of geese were named specifically in the historic and ethnographic sources consulted for this project: Brant (sometimes called the Brent Goose) and the Canada Goose (Birket-Smith 1953:17; Akaran 1981:6). In the Chugach Region, Canada Geese do nest but most, if not all, are a darker and smaller subspecies called the Dusky Canada Goose (B. canadensis occidentalis) or “Duskies”. This unique goose nests almost exclusively on the Copper River Delta and, more recently, on Middleton Island where they were recently introduced. They winter primarily in the Willamette Valley and on the Columbia River floodplain in Oregon and Washington.

Brant or kahnguk (LCI) or kam’uk (PWS) or liglig (Eyak)

Illustration by Kim McNett

Brant are relatively small compared to other geese in the Chugach Region. They have a distinct black head with a speckled, white band around their neck. They typically have brown wings, pale colored flanks, and a belly that may be light brown to blackish gray.

Greater White-fronted Goose
or naaXAgqa’ya’ (Eyak)

Illustration by Kim McNett

White-fronted Geese live up to their name, with a bright white patch on the front of their faces. Their bodies are brown, with speckled or black stripes across the belly. They also have brightly colored orangish, sometimes pinkish, bills and legs.

Snow Goose

Illustration by Kim McNett

As expected, the Snow Goose is white as snow, besides the few black tail feathers and wing tips. Infrequently, you may see a dark morph called a blue Snow Goose that is bluish-gray with a white face but with the black-tipped tail and wings like the white morph.