Dutch Birding volume 26 (2004) no 2

Pair of Dark-bellied Brent Goose x Pale-bellied Brent Goose with three hybrid young on Texel in December 2003-January 2004

From 26 December 2003 to late January 2004, a mixed pair of a male Pale-bellied Brent Goose Branta hrota and a female Dark-bellied Brent Goose B bernicla and three hybrid young were observed on Texel, Noord-Holland, the Netherlands, in a large flock of Dark-bellied Brent Geese and two Black Brants B nigricans. Mixed brent goose pairs of this combination have been reported only twice before in the Netherlands and only once before with hybrid offspring (in 1980). Records from other countries are unknown. The hybrids strongly resembled so-called 'Gray-bellied Brants', the subspecies (still) without taxonomic rank from western arctic Canada and wintering on the West Coast of the USA, which has also been reported in Ireland and Northern Ireland in recent years. Without the presence of the parents, the hybrid young might well have been reported as 'Gray-bellied Brants'. Pairs of Dark-bellied Brent Goose with Black Brant with hybrid young have been recorded in Britain and the Netherlands and suspected hybrids Pale-bellied Brent Goose x Black Brant have been reported on the East Coast of the USA.

Justin J F J Jansen, Blitterswijckseweg 3, 5871 CD Broekhuizenvorst, Nederland
(justinDBAcs.com)
Enno B Ebels, Joseph Haydnlaan 4, 3533 AE Utrecht, Nederland
(ebelswxs.nl)