ML614321190
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
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- Playback
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Observation details
Continuing pair. Feeding on the north side of the lake. Juveniles making ID difficult. Talked with the Trumpeter Swan Society (TSS) and shared photos. They said that juveniles create the biggest difficulty in ID and they are revising their web page to improve the juvenile ID. Their PHD biologist said these birds appeared to be Tundra based on the almost complete white eye ring seen in attached photos. Trumpeters have at minimum a small piece of black bill touching the eye or have a dark eye ring. Also these two juveniles had a short neck in judgement of TSS. That seemed subjective to me since I had no Trumpeter Swan to measure against. Tundra Swans are 1/3 the size of Trumpeter but again there was no way to compare. I had had concerns about these birds having very straight bills (literature describes scooped or concave bills on Tundra) and the deep “V” border between the forehead and bill of these birds that also are often a description used in IDing Trumpeters. TSS says that these are guidelines and are variable with swans. The key determinant is vocalizations. While near the birds in my kayak I played a recording twice for both Tundra and Trumpeter. They showed more interest in the Tundra calls, even swimming towards me. About 2-3 minutes after the recording, both birds started making a low pitched “hoh!” call of a Tundra Swan. Check out the recording that I made and attached to the checklist below the photos. So go with calls first if vocalizing, then focus on the eyes, and then neck length, body size, bill shape, and notch. This is THE website for swans especially juveniles. https://www.trumpeterswansociety.org/swan-information/identification/voice-head-and-bill.html
Technical information
- Recorder
- Microphone
- Accessories
- Original file size
- 5 MB