Whooper Swan
Cygnus cygnus
Print fact sheet (PDF)
Straight neck, yellow wedge on the bill, and a bugling call from birds that flew here from Iceland.
A large wild swan that winters on the Solway in internationally important numbers. It differs from the mute swan in holding its neck straight and stiff, and in the bill pattern — a large triangular wedge of yellow reaching forward past the nostril, rather than orange with a knob. Whooper swans feed on flooded fields, merse and stubble around the estuary from October to April.
Behaviour
Whoopers are noisy and highly social, keeping up a bugling, trumpeting contact call in flight and on the ground — quite unlike the mute swan. Family parties stay together through the winter, with the previous summer's grey cygnets still alongside their parents, which makes it possible to count breeding success from a field gate. They graze grass, waste potatoes and cereals by day and roost on open water.
Migration
Almost all whooper swans wintering here breed in Iceland, and they cross the open North Atlantic in a single flight — one of the longest sea crossings of any swan, undertaken by whole families including the young of that year.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Ducks, geese and swans (Anatidae)
- Size
- 140–165 cm
- UK status
- Amber-listed
Photo by Andreas Trepte, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons