Scientific name:

Branta bernicla

About:

Another common wintering bird, and the smallest of our common geese, only just bigger than a mallard. They gather in large flocks of hundreds or more and, like other geese, fly in long V-shaped formations called skeins.

How to identify:

<p>Our smallest goose, with a black neck and head, with just a small white patch on the neck.</p>

Where:

Only found here in the winter. Birds that nest in northern Russia and Siberia are darker, and spend the winter around the coasts of East Anglia and southern England. Birds that nest in Svalbard and Greenland are paler.

Fantastic facts:

The brent is the most coastal of our geese, feeding mainly on eel-grass and seaweed on sandy estuaries.