Tundra Swans 40D0033038

Tundra Swans (Cygnus columbianus)

The Tundra Swan is a majestic and stately bird. There is nothing comparable to being out on a beautiful spring day near a marsh or open lake and hear their "whooping sound".

Swans mate for life as two year olds and don't start breeding until 3 to 5 years old. The nest is usually on elevated sites near large ponds or lakes that have emergent plant beds, which is reused every year.

Unmated tundra swans gather in small flocks in coastal marshes to spend the summer. North American tundra swans have two distinct populations, an Eastern and Western. The Eastern population breed from the Canadian Arctic to Northwest Alaska (10,000 in Alaska), and migrate across the continent to winter on the Atlantic coast. They used to congregate in Chesapeake Bay, but the pollution and declination of the bays abundant aquatic vegetation has caused them to relocate south to North Carolina. Their population also had a severe decline, like the Trumpeter Swan, and was on the Endangered Species List. A high conservation effort has restored their population of only 100 birds in the 1930's to over 100,000 in 1990.

The Western population of Tundra Swans nest along the west coast of Alaska from Kotzebue Sound to the Alaska Peninsula. A large portion of their population also nest in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and Bristol Bay region. Their migration route is both through the Coastal regions and the Interior (Alaska, Alberta, Montana, and Utah) to winter grounds located from British Columbia to central California.

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