Swan

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Swans
Mute Swan
Mute Swan
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Anseriformes
Family: Anatidae
Subfamily: Anserinae
Genera
Cygnus
Coscoroba

Swans are large water birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae.

Swans usually mate for life, though "divorce" does sometimes occur, particularly following nesting failure. The number of eggs in each clutch varies both within and among swan species, typically between 3–8 eggs.

Young swans are known as cygnets, from the Latin word for swan, cygnus. The male and female adults are known as cob and pen. The word is derived from Old English swan, akin to German schwan, in turn derived from Indo-European root *swen (to sound, to sing), whence Latin derives sonus (sound). (Webster's New World Dictionary)

Coloration

The Northern Hemisphere species of swan all have pure white plumage, but the Southern Hemisphere species are all patterned with various amounts of black. The Australian Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) is black all over except for the white flight feathers on its wings, and the South American Black-necked Swan has, as its name suggests, a black neck; finally, the Coscoroba Swan, also from southern South America, has black tips to the primary feathers.

The legs of all swans are dark blackish grey, except for the two South American species, which have pink legs. Bill colour varies rather more; the three far northern species have black bills with varying amounts of yellow, and all the others varyingly patterned red and black. The Mute Swan and Black-necked Swan have a lump at the base of the bill on the upper mandible.

Species of swan

Genus Cygnus Bechstein 1803

  • Whooper Swan, Cygnus cygnus breeds in Iceland and subarctic Europe and Asia, migrating to temperate Europe and Asia in winter. Whooper Swan is Finland`s national bird.
  • Trumpeter Swan, Cygnus buccinator is a North American species very similar to the Whooper Swan (and sometimes treated as a subspecies of it), which was hunted almost to extinction but has since recovered: it is one of the heaviest flying animals, at up to 17 kilograms (38 pounds).
  • Whistling Swan, Cygnus columbianus is a relatively small swan which breeds on the North American tundra, further north than other swans. It winters in the USA.
  • Bewick's Swan, Cygnus bewickii is the Eurasian form which migrates from Arctic Russia to western Europe and eastern Asia ( China, Japan) in winter. The reserves of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Britain are important for Bewick's and Whooper Swans. It is often considered a subspecies of C. columbianus, creating the species Tundra Swan.
  • Black Swan, Cygnus atratus of Australia, and introduced in New Zealand. The Black Swan is the official state emblem of Western Australia, and is also the symbol of the Sydney beachside suburb of Dee Why.
  • New Zealand Swan, Cygnus atratus sumnerensis Conservation status: Prehistoric
  • Black-necked Swan, Cygnus melancoryphus of South America, formerly Sthenelides melanocorypha.
  • Mute Swan, Cygnus olor, is a common temperate Eurasian species, often semi-domesticated; descendants of domestic flocks are naturalized in the United States and elsewhere.
  • New Zealand Swan, Cygnus sumnerensis, is an extinct swan from the Chatham Islands.


Genus Coscoroba Reichenbach 1853

  • Coscoroba Swan, Coscoroba coscoroba, also of South America

Photo gallery

Trumpeter Swan

Flock of Tundra Swans migrating near Alma, WI, USA

Black Swans

Swans in human culture

  • Swans are revered in many religions and cultures, especially Hinduism. The Sanskrit word for swan is hamsa or hansa, and it is the vehicle of many deities like the goddess Saraswati. It is mentioned several times in the Vedic literature, and some swans have also been said to have the knowledge of the Supreme Being Brahman. They are said to reside in the summers in the Manasarovar lake and migrate to Indian lakes for the winter, eat pearls, and separate milk from water in a mixture of both. Hindu iconography typically shows the Mute Swan. It is wrongly supposed by many Historians that the word hamsa only means a goose, since today swans are no longer found in India, not even in most zoos. However, ornithological checklists like this clearly classify several species of swans as vagrant birds in India.
  • It is almost a taboo to kill a swan in some countries since they had been used as a symbols or weapon insignia for important families ( England for example has a written law against killing swans; perpetrators who deliberately kill a swan are seriously prosecuted).
  • In the Greek mythology epic Helen of Troy. Helen is half swan half human due to that her parents' was an union of a swan ( Zeus in swan disguise) and Leda, Queen of Sparta. See Leda and the Swan. Helen is said to be so beautiful that she was the reason a ten-year long siege war started in Troy.
  • One Chinese idiom about swan is "You are a scoundrel who wants to eat swan meat!" . This idiom refer to people who are rude and ask/demand a reward they shouldn't deserve.