Trumpeter swan Trumpeter swan The trumpeter swan ("Cygnus buccinator") 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 that may exceed . It is the American counterpart and a close relative of the whooper swan ("Cygnus cygnus") 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
Pale-winged trumpeter species, the ochre-winged trumpeter ("P. ochroptera"). The reproductive behavior of the nominate subspecies of the pale-winged trumpeter is the best known of all the trumpeters'. Groups of adults defend a territory together. Several males mate with the dominant female, the dominant male doing so most often. She lays an average of three eggs in a hole in a tree, where both males and females incubate. The young hatch covered with thick, dark, cryptically patterned down. Soon afterwards, they jump down to the ground and follow the adults. Their call is a loud staccato trumpeting. Pale-winged trumpeter The pale-winged trumpeter ("Psophia