Trumpeter Swan

The Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus Buccinator) belongs to the Anatidae familyand populates a small area of eastern North America between Canada and United States. Considered the tallest and most imposing in size among all the swans, it derives its name from the resonant call it emits; all its thanks to the greater length of the trachea which allows it to reproduce a strong, decisive and lasting sound, the most important of all the wild birds of the continent. The Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus Buccinator) is often found in small colonies of up to 5/7 pairs and prefers large pools of water rich in aquatic vegetation. Mainly herbivorous species, it loves to feed in shallow waters where thanks to the length of the neck it is able to dive up to 80 cm of depth in search of food; really important in the Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus Buccinator) is the role of the legs, thanks to them it is able to dig large holes to look for roots and shoots fundamental for its daily diet especially on cold winter days. The couple is very close and reaches full sexual maturity after four years of life. With the exception of Mute Swan (Cygnus Olor) they are the only Nordic swans not to nest in the High Arctic; the massime nest is usually built near the large water dams built by beavers and the eggs are laid between the end of April and the beginning of the May. The female that lays 4/6 large light-colored eggs fills the nest with a soft duvet, which wraps the eggs protecting them from the string spring cold, especially the night one. Once born, the little ones are very active and enterprising; in the first 3 weeks of life they feed mainly on aquatic beetles and small invertebrates, but already after 5 weeks their diet becomes almost completely herbivorous where aquatic plants, tubers, shoots and roots predominate. The young of the Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus Buccinator) need an ideal temperature to grow and develop in a suitable way; unfortunately, when the cold arrives very early and the waters freeze rapidly, infant mortality becomes a very important problem in the development of the species. The Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus Buccinator), like all Nordic swans, learns to fly quickly, much earlier than those of the south. All this because young people need to move quickly before the winter frost can arrive. There is no sexual dimorphism in the couple. Both sexes have a long and black bill, a flat head and a neck twice as long as the length of the body, which is always erect and slender. The tail has 24 feathers compared to the 20 that usually represent normality in the various species of swans and very particular, finally, is the salmon-colored strip between the upper and lower part of the jaw.