Whooper Swan
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{{Taxobox | color = pink | name = Whooper Swan | status = Conservation status: Lower risk (lc) | image = Alarch y Gogledd.JPG | image_width = 200px | regnum = Animalia | phylum = Chordata | classis = Aves | ordo = Anseriformes | familia = Anatidae | genus = Cygnus | species = C. cygnus | binomial = Cygnus cygnus | binomial_authority = (Linnaeus, 1758) }}
Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus) is a large Northern Hemisphere swan. It is the Old World counterpart of the North American Trumpeter Swan.
Whooper is similar in appearance to the Bewick's Swan. However, it is larger, at 140-160cm length and a 205-235cm wingspan. It has a more angular head shape and a more variable bill pattern that always shows more yellow than black (Bewick's Swans have more black than yellow).
Their breeding habitat is wetland. They pair for life, and their cygnets stay with them all winter; they are sometimes joined by offspring from previous years.
Whooper Swans breed in subarctic Eurasia, further south than Bewick's in the taiga zone. They are migratory wintering in northern Europe and eastern Asia. They are rare breeders in northern Scotland, particularly in the Orkney Isles, but no more than five pairs have bred in recent years. This bird is an occasional vagrant to western North America.
Icelandic breeders overwinter in England and Ireland, especially in the wildfowl nature reserves of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust .
These birds feed mainly by grazing on farmland on coasts or inland flood plains. They have a deep honking call.
| Image:1e fin.png | Image:Whooper1.jpg | Image:Whoopers kilfenora2.jpg |
UK Bird Flu 2006
The global spread of H5N1 reached the UK in April 2006 in the form of a dead Whooper Swan found in Scotland.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4898398.stm |publisher=BBC News |title=Bird flu swan was from outside UK |date=April 11, 2006}}</ref>
Sources
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Further reading
- Whooper Swan Hoatzin videos on the Internet Bird Collectionbg:Поен лебед
cs:Labuť zpěvná cy:Alarch y Gogledd da:Sangsvane de:Singschwan fi:Laulujoutsen fr:Cygne chanteur fy:Kloekswan it:Cygnus cygnus ja:オオハクチョウ lt:Gulbė giesmininkė nl:Wilde zwaan no:Sangsvane pl:Łabędź krzykliwy sk:Labuť spevavá sv:Sångsvan zh:大天鹅