Trumpeter Swan, Big Love on the Lake

Swans are elegant, confident, loyal, and loving. They teach us to ‘fly forward, neck outstretched, trumpeting joyfully.’ The first time I heard a Trumpeter Swan in Minnesota, I thought someone was playing a flat trumpet across the lake. A minute later I saw a pair gliding across the water, and have since dubbed the lake “lovers’ lake.” This swan is the largest native waterfowl, up to 6 feet long and weigh up to 25 pounds. Getting airborne off the water requires a splashy lumbering take-off across at least 100 meters!

Trumpeters were also once driven to near-extinction in the 18th and 19th centuries. Market hunters and feather collectors killed them for their meat, skins, and feathers. The feathers were used in women’s hats, skins used for powder puffs, and longer feathers used for writing quills. By the 1930’s, only 69 remained in the lower 48 states. With wetland conservation and hunting regulations, they’ve recovered wonderfully. Hunting them is now illegal in the U.S. Overhunting of muskrats and beavers may have harmed Trumpeter Swans, too: the swans nest on their dens and dams. As the rodents’ populations recovered, breeding habitat for the swans also improved.

Trumpeter Swans form pair bonds when they are three or four years old. The pair stays together throughout the year, moving together in migratory populations. Trumpeters are assumed to mate for life, but some individuals do switch mates over their lifetimes. Some males that lost their mates did not mate again.

Both sexes collect plant material to build the nest, which includes a foundation topped by a mound of aquatic vegetation, occasionally including grasses and sedges. The female uses her bill and body to shape a nest bowl atop the finished mound. The bowl’s lining may include a few feathers. Nests take 14 – 35 days to build and the completed oblong or circular nest mound can reach up to 11 feet across and 3 feet high! They also take an unusual approach to incubation: they warm the eggs by covering them with their webbed feet. A clutch is 4-6 eggs, 

Trumpeter Swans are mainly vegetarians, eating a variety of aquatic plants, although they occasionally eat small fish and fish eggs. Younger birds also eat aquatic insects before switching to a plant-dominated diet. To feed underwater they tip in the air like dabbling ducks, rooting beneath the surface to twist and pull up vegetation or freeing roots by paddling their feet in the mud. Sometimes ducks join the swans to forage on insects and plants disturbed. 

Pairs stay together throughout the year and often migrate and winter in family groups and with other waterfowl, including Tundra Swans, Canada Geese, and Northern Pintails. Although Trumpeter Swans have been dubbed “a classic conservation success” and numbers continue to increase, threats such as lead poisoning, habitat loss, power lines, and occasional shooting continue to affect the population. The swans are also extremely sensitive to human disturbance at their breeding sites and will abandon nests and cygnets if disturbed.

Original mixed media on raw stretched canvas with maple float frame. Alternative hardwood frames available upon request.

Sources: All About Birds and Audubon Society.