Trumpeter Swan

The Trumpeter Swan is named for its call: a deep, loud, brassy honk that sounds like a trumpet or a French horn and can be heard far across a lake. The sound comes from its unusually long windpipe, which loops inside the breastbone before reaching the lungs and works like the tubing of a brass instrument. Mates call back and forth in duets, families use it to stay together in flight, and pairs trumpet while bobbing their heads to warn off rivals. Its scientific name, Cygnus buccinator, also means trumpeter, from the Latin bucina, a Roman military horn.

No. The Trumpet of the Swan is a 1970 novel by E. B. White, and its hero Louis, a swan born without a voice who learns to play a real trumpet, is fiction. But the book is built on real places and real history. Louis's family winters at Red Rock Lakes in Montana, the refuge set up in 1935 to protect the last trumpeter swans in the contiguous United States, and the Swan Boats he plays for still carry passengers around the Boston Public Garden. Real trumpeter swans do use their calls to find and keep a mate, which is the whole problem Louis has to solve.

The last continent wide survey, in 2015, counted 63,016 Trumpeter Swans, 63% more than in 2010. The largest group is now the Interior population, about 27,000 birds, built largely from reintroductions in states like Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan and in Ontario. The Pacific Coast population, 24,240 birds that nest mostly in Alaska and winter on the coasts of British Columbia and Washington, comes next, followed by the Rocky Mountain population with about 11,700. That is a huge change from 1933, when fewer than 70 wild birds were known south of Canada.

The bill is the quickest clue. The Mute Swan has an orange bill with a black knob at its base, while the Trumpeter Swan has a solid black bill with no knob. On the water, Mute Swans often hold their necks in a graceful S curve with the wings arched over the back, while trumpeters usually keep the neck straight and the wings folded flat. The calls differ too: the Mute Swan is mostly quiet apart from hisses and grunts, while the trumpeter honks loudly. In North America the Mute Swan is an introduced species from Europe.

In summer, the best places are the wetlands of Alaska and northwestern Canada, along with Yellowstone National Park and Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Montana, where the species made its last stand. Winter is often easier, because the birds gather in large flocks. The Skagit Valley in Washington and the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island host thousands, and in the Midwest the Mississippi River at Monticello, Minnesota, draws big crowds of swans. In Ontario, Wye Marsh near Midland, where the province's reintroduction program raised its first wild breeding pair, is a well known place to see them.

Trumpeter Swans are long lived birds. The oldest known wild bird reached at least 24 years of age, and swans in captivity have lived to 33. Many die much younger, especially in their first year, when cygnets are lost to predators, cold weather, and collisions. Adults that survive those early years can breed for well over a decade. Their survival over the long term depends on clean wetlands with no lead left in the sediment and on freedom from disturbance during the nesting season.

They can be, especially when defending a nest or cygnets. Males in particular will charge at animals or people that get too close, using their large wings and body to push back a threat. Outside of breeding season, they are generally calm and tend to avoid conflict. Most aggression is directed at other swans competing for territory or at predators such as foxes or coyotes that wander too close to a nesting site.

A typical clutch contains four to six eggs, and occasionally as many as nine. The eggs are large and creamy white, and the female does most of the incubating, which lasts around 32 to 37 days, while the male stands guard nearby. Once hatched, the cygnets can swim in less than a day, though both parents watch over them closely. The young take three to four months to learn to fly, and families usually stay together through the first winter, with the young birds gradually becoming independent by their second year of life.

By the early 1900s, decades of intensive hunting had pushed the species to the edge of disappearing entirely. Their skins and feathers were in demand for powder puffs, hat decorations, and quill pens, and their meat was also prized. By 1933 fewer than 70 wild birds were known in the contiguous United States. Legal protection beginning in 1918, the discovery of thousands of swans in Alaska in the 1950s, reintroduction programs, and wetland conservation allowed the population to recover to about 63,000 birds in the 2015 survey.

The two species look very similar, but there are reliable ways to tell them apart. The Tundra Swan is noticeably smaller and usually has a small yellow patch at the base of its bill, near the eye. The Trumpeter Swan has a fully black bill with no yellow. Their calls also differ clearly. The Trumpeter produces a deep, low honk, while the Tundra Swan has a higher and more musical sound. Range and habitat overlap in winter, making the bill the easiest field mark to check.

Despite their strong recovery, Trumpeter Swans still face several pressures. Lead poisoning from accidentally swallowing spent fishing weights or old shotgun pellets in wetland sediment is a serious concern. Collisions with power lines are another documented cause of death, particularly for young birds. Habitat loss through the draining of wetlands for agriculture or development also limits the areas available for breeding and feeding. Climate change is an emerging concern, as shifting weather patterns can affect the timing and quality of their wetland habitats.