COVER STORY: SPECIES PROFILE
DESPITE stiff competition, the red-breasted goose (Branta ruficollis) is, with some justification, often described as one of the most attractive species of wildfowl. Certainly it is one of the most sought-after goose species by waterfowl keepers.
Although it is the smallest, it is also the most striking and colourful of the brent geese: the six species in the goose genus Branta. (In the USA, these are known as brant geese.) The females of some Branta species are marginally smaller than the males and in the red-breasted goose the male, although apparently weighing the same, does appear stockier. His forehead above the cere is more vertical than in the female and pairs are instantly recognisable due to this feature.
“The first UK breeding was at Woburn Abbey in 1926, where they
