Trumpeter Swan
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| Cygnus buccinator Richardson, 1832 |
The Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator) is the largest native North American swan and only swan species found solely in North America. It is rivaled in size only by the introduced Mute Swan, which is native to Eurasia, and usually is longer-bodied, exceptionally reaching 6 feet in length. The Trumpeter Swan is closely related to the Whooper Swan of Eurasia.
These birds have white plumage with a long neck, a short black bill which extends back to the eyes and short black legs. Their wing span can be 3 m (about 9 feet). The cygnets are grey in appearance, becoming white after the first year.
Their breeding habitat is large shallow ponds and wide slow rivers in northwestern North America, with the largest numbers being found in Alaska. The female lays 3 to 9 eggs in a mound of plant material on a small island, a beaver or muskrat lodge or a floating platform. The same location may be used for several years. These birds often mate for life. The young are able to swim soon after hatching, but are not ready for flight for 3 to 4 months.
Natural populations of these swans migrate to the Pacific coast and northwestern United States, flying south in V-shaped flocks. Released populations are mostly non-migratory.
These birds feed mainly on aquatic plants while swimming, sometimes up-ending or dabbling to reach submerged vegetation. In winter, they may also eat grasses and grains in fields. The young are fed insects and small crustaceans at first, changing to a plant diet over the first few months.
Adults go through a summer moult and they temporarily lose their flight feathers. The females become flightless shortly after the young hatch; the males go through this process about a month later when the females have completed their moult.
This bird was named for its trumpet-like honk which some compare to the sound of a French horn. The E.B. White novel, The Trumpet of the Swan, is about a trumpeter swan which learns to play the trumpet in order to compensate for having been born mute.
Trumpeter Swans once bred in North America from Illinois west to Oregon in the U.S., and in Canada from James Bay to the Yukon, but human actions have reduced their numbers in the southern part of their range to near zero by the mid-twentieth century. Many thousands survived in Canada, however, where populations have since rebounded. Efforts to reintroduce this bird into other parts of its original range have had only modest success, as suitable habitats have dwindled and the released birds do not undertake migrations.
