Whooper Swan
Overview
Swan
Swans, genus Cygnus, are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes 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...
. It is the Eurasian counterpart of the North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n Trumpeter Swan
Trumpeter Swan
The Trumpeter Swan, Cygnus buccinator, is the largest native North American bird, if measured in terms of weight and length, and is the largest living waterfowl species on earth. It is the North American counterpart of the European Whooper Swan.-Description:Males typically measure from and weigh...
. An old name for the Whooper Swan is Elk; it is so called in Francis Willughby
Francis Willughby
thumbnail|200px|right|A page from the Ornithologia, showing [[Jackdaw]], [[Chough]], [[European Magpie|Magpie]] and [[Eurasian Jay|Jay]], all [[Corvidae|crows]]....
and John Ray
John Ray
John Ray was an English naturalist, sometimes referred to as the father of English natural history. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray. From then on, he used 'Ray', after "having ascertained that such had been the practice of his family before him".He published important works on botany,...
's Ornithology of 1676.
The Whooper Swan is similar in appearance to the Bewick's Swan
Bewick's Swan
The Tundra Swan is a small Holarctic swan. The two taxa within it are usually regarded as conspecific, but are also sometimes split into two species, Cygnus bewickii of the Palaearctic and the Whistling Swan, C. columbianus proper, of the Nearctic...
. However, it is larger, at a length of 140 – and a wingspan of 205 –. Weight typically is in the range of 7.4 –, with an average of 9.8–11 kg (21.6–24.3 lb) for males and 8.2–9.2 kg (18.1–20.3 lb) for females.
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