The trumpeter swan is a species of swan found in North America. The heaviest living bird native to North America, it is also the largest extant species of waterfowl, with a wingspan of 185 to 304.8 cm. It is the American counterpart and a close relative of the whooper swan of Eurasia, and even has been considered the same species by some authorities. By 1933, fewer than 70 wild trumpeters were known to exist, and extinction seemed imminent, until aerial surveys discovered a Pacific population of several thousand trumpeters around Alaska's Copper River. Careful reintroductions by wildlife agencies and the Trumpeter Swan Society gradually restored the North American wild population to over 46,000 birds by 2010.
Trumpeter swan
Juvenile at the Cincinnati Zoo
Its black bill is useful in distinguishing the trumpeter swan from the introduced mute swan.
Plate 406 of the Birds of America by John James Audubon, depicting the trumpeter swan
Swans are birds of the genus Cygnus within the family Anatidae. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae.
Swan
An adult mute swan (Cygnus olor) with cygnets in Vrelo Bosne, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
A mute swan landing on water. Due to the size and weight of most swans, large areas of open land or water are required to successfully take off and land.
Whooper swans migrate from Iceland, Greenland, Scandinavia, and northern Russia to Europe, Central Asia, China, and Japan