Trumpeter swan
The Trumpeter swan is the largest swan species, measuring between 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 feet in length and weighing 15 1/2 to 30 pounds. Recognizable by their striking black faces and bills, these swans are celebrated for their deep, resonant trumpeting calls. They primarily inhabit northern regions of North America, favoring freshwater environments such as rivers, lakes, marshes, and occasionally damp woodlands and prairies. Trumpeter swans are omnivorous, foraging for aquatic plants, grasses, and sometimes invertebrates.
Mating for life, a male (cob) and female (pen) form a pair at four to six years old and defend a territory near their nest, which they reuse annually. The pen incubates four to six eggs for about 32 to 37 days, with cygnets developing their flight feathers in 91 to 119 days. Historically, the species faced near extinction due to hunting and habitat loss, but conservation efforts have helped their population recover, making them no longer classified as threatened, though they still face some environmental challenges.
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Trumpeter swan
Trumpeter swans are the largest of the swan species, measuring 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 feet from the tips of their bills to their toes or tail tips. They are known by their black faces and bills and deep, loud, trumpeting calls. Trumpeter swans can be found in the northern regions of North America.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Anseriformes
Family: Anatidae
Genus: Cygnus
Species: Buccinator
Known for their loud, deep, trumpeting calls, the trumpeter swans are the largest of the swan species. They are up to 5 1/2 feet long from the tips of their bills to their tails and may weigh between 15 1/2 and 30 pounds (seven and 13 1/2 kilograms). Like many of the other swans, the trumpeter swans have solid white plumage, which they molt, or shed, once every year. Another distinguishing feature of these large, graceful, beautiful aquatic birds is their all-black faces and bills. Along the mouth line between their upper and lower bills, called mandibles, each swan has a thin red line, which looks similar to red lipstick.
Rivers, lakes, ponds, and freshwater marshes in lowland regions are the chief habitats of these magnificent creatures. They may also live in damp woodland areas and open prairies. Swans living in Alaska migrate between tundra regions, where they spend most of the year, and locations further south where they live in winter. Those birds which live in central North America in the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains do not usually migrate.
A variety of plants, which grow in the water, supply the swans with their daily diet. They may either pick from the shore or reach for food underwater with their long necks. Other grasses, low-growing plants, and crops are also possible meals, as well as occasional invertebrates, or animals without backbones. This varied diet makes the trumpeter swan an omnivore or meat- and plant-eating animal.
As is typical of swans, the trumpeter swan cob, or male, and pen, or female, mate for life. They form a pair when they are each four to six years old and then do not mate with any other swans unless their mate dies. Each may live between 24 and 33 years. Sometime between March and May, the pair claims the territory around its nest site and defends it from other swans. They claim the same territory and use the same nest site each year, which is most often near water. Both the cob and the pen build the nest of grass and twigs, which may be up to 10 feet (three meters) wide at the base. After laying four to six eggs, the pen then incubates them for 32 to 37 days until they hatch. Ninety-one to 119 days after hatching, the cygnets, or young, have their feathers and are able to fly. They stay with their parents until the next mating season.
Bears, wolves, coyotes, humans, foxes, raccoons, and birds of prey are the natural predators of trumpeter swans. Early colonists and settlers in North America hunted trumpeter swans nearly to extinction. They ate their meat and used their large feathers for quill pens and decorating women's hats. Softer feathers were turned into powder puffs for cosmetics and into feather boas, which were long scarves for women. Records report that by 1933 only 66 swans remained alive. Legislation and protected habitats now preserve the swan population, although they may still be threatened by mining and oil drilling in Alaska. Trumpeter swans, in general, are no longer considered a threatened species.
Bibliography
Robins, Kaitlyn. “ADW: Cygnus Buccinator: Information.” Animal Diversity Web, 2011, animaldiversity.org/accounts/Cygnus‗buccinator. Accessed 13 May 2024.
“Trumpeter Swan - Facts, Diet, Habitat, & Pictures on Animalia.bio.” Animalia, 2024, animalia.bio/trumpeter-swan. Accessed 13 May 2024.