Beautiful and Elegant Tundra swan at Middle Creek
Tundra swans, Canada geese, and many species of ducks can be viewed throughout the day in waterfowl.
The tundra swan is four to five feet long and has a wingspan of about 66 inches. It is markedly smaller than both the trumpeter swan and the feral mute swan.
Chances are good that those graceful, majestic birds were tundra swans. The tundra swan (Cygnus columbianus), formerly known as the whistling swan, breeds.
displace native Tundra
Feral Mute
KEY FACTS
Larger and longer necked than geese. Entirely white; black bill with yellow spot near eye. Similar Mute Swan( not shown)has orange bill with black knob at base.
gra
this
voice: Call is a single or double honk like an old car horn.
habitat: Nests in Arctic. Winters in large flocks in wetlands.
food: Aquatic plants and tubers, - lusks, arthropods.
list
The serrated bill helps swans graze on plants.
des
sually seen in flocks during migration and winter, America's"whis- tling swan" breeds in the Arctic and winters mostly near the Pacific and mid-Atlantic coasts of the United States. They once fed mostly on submerged aquatic vegetation, but habitat losses on their win- tering grounds led them to depend increasingly on yellow grain fields. Some wild Tundra Swans have spot in front of lived over 23 years. They remain with their eye juvenile mate for life. Their chicks, called cygnets, can follow their parents within hours of adult hatching. Recently hatched cygnets are too buoyant to feed easily while swimming; they feed more
uni
isti
pinkish bill
very long neck
often on land than the
all white
4 Pocket Guide to the Birds of North America
young of other swans.
#Tundraswan#waterfowmigration#middlecreek
