Trumpeter swan was still capable of flight due to its bulk. The adult trumpeter swan is all white in plumage. Like mute swan cygnets, the cygnets of the trumpeter swan have light grey plumage and pinkish legs, and gain their white plumage after about a year. As with a whooper swan, this species has upright posture and generally swims with a straight neck. The trumpeter swan has a large, wedge-shaped black bill that can, in some cases, be minimally lined with salmon-pink coloration around the mouth. The bill, measuring , is up to twice the length of a Canada goose's ("Branta canadensis")
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