Although all swans may seem large to you, there is one that surpasses the rest of your family members. The trumpeter swan is the largest specimen of the cygnus family. But how tall are you exactly?
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It’s very well distributed
The trumpeter swan, which is called the cygnus buccinator, is a species of the antidae family, the genus of the cygnus that extends across North America.
They currently nest on the islands off the southern coast of Alaska. When the winter season arrives they migrate to the British Columba Province in Canada. After the season, they return home again.
How tall are they exactly?
This species is 145-163 cm long and can weigh up to 12 kg. The female is a little smaller than the male, so they usually weigh about 10 kg and measure between 139-150 cm.
The plumage of its body is white in color in its entirety. There is no sexual dimorphism in sight, so the only way to tell the male from the female is through size. When they are young, they have a grey plumage that turns white after their first year of life.
Another of its peculiarities, and which serves to differentiate it from other members of the swan genus at first sight, is that its beak is completely black, while the other members of the family have a beak with a little yellow or orange.
What is their daily life like?
It’s a bird that hunts while it swims. They splash around so they can reach the food under the water. To do this, they move their legs very quickly just above where the food is located, which helps to weaken the attachment to the ground so that they can catch it by submerging their head in the water. During the winter months she has been seen eating grain in the fields. They also feed on crustaceans.
Their species faces many predators, with the raven, raccoon, grizzly bear, coyote and raccoon as their main enemies, who often go after their eggs. The golden eagle is the greatest enemy of an adult swan, as it can hunt and devour them without many complications.
When the breeding season arrives, usually with the arrival of boreal spring, the female lays between three and twelve eggs on a plant pylon on a small island, the old house of an old beaver or a floating platform. The eggs usually weigh 320 grams and measure between 73 and 113.5 mm. This species is monogamous, so parents will spend the rest of their lives together once they have formed a family.
The incubation is carried out almost entirely by the mother for 32-37 days, until the chicks are finally born. Within a few days the chicks will follow their mother, usually two days, and begin to feed themselves after two weeks. They won’t start flying until they’re four months old.
A curiosity of the species is that after the hatchlings hatch, the females lose their flight feathers, so they cannot fly until about a month has passed. It is a process that also happens to the male.
In the past, this species bred in all the western provinces of Canada, as well as in the northern states of the United States. However, during the 18th and 19th centuries, this species suffered a merciless hunt by humans, which considerably reduced the population, to the point that it was on the verge of extinction.
But in the 20th century work began on its maintenance, protecting the species and helping it to recover. Little by little the population has grown and become stable. This bird can live 35 years in captivity, while in the wild it usually lives between 12-15 years.
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