The return of the trumpeter swan to Minnesota is a wildlife conservation success story. Once nearly extinct, this federally protected nongame bird has slowly but surely made a comeback. Nearly 900 trumpeter swans now live in Minnesota year round.

Identification

General description: A large white swan with black feet and a black bill.

Length: About 60 inches.

Weight: About 28 pounds.

Color: White.

Sounds: A loud call resembling the blast of a trumpet or French horn.

Reproduction

Courtship begins in January and mated pairs begin nesting in late April. The eggs (2 to 10) hatch in 33 to 37 days. Both the male and the female protect the young swans, called cygnets (SIG-nets). Young swans begin flying after about three months.

Food

Trumpeter swans eat wild celery and other water plants, grain, grasses, insects and snails.

Predators

Coyotes, river otters and eagles will kill and eat swans. But most swan deaths are caused by people. Some swans are poisoned when they swallow lead shot found on marsh bottoms. Others are killed by vandals or shot illegally. A few die in accidents such as in collisions with powerlines.

Habitat and range

Swans live in ponds, marshes, lakes and rivers. During the nesting season, trumpeter swans prefer calm bodies of water in hidden areas surrounded by lots of plants. They spend the winter on rivers that have open water. Many trumpeter swans are still found in Alaska, the only place where they have survived in large numbers after the early 1900s.

Population and management

Most trumpeter swans were killed in the late 1800s for their beautiful feathers, which were used for ladies' hats. But then it became illegal to shoot swans. Minnesota now has more than 75 nesting pairs of trumpeter swans, a number that continues to grow. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and agencies such as the DNR perform yearly swan counts in Minnesota and other states to keep track of the population.

Fun facts

Wildlife managers collected the eggs of trumpeter swans in Alaska and hatched them in Minnesota to help restore the wild population here.