Northern Europe Birds · December

Whooper Swan

Cygnus cygnus

Yellow-billed wild swan that bugles across northern winters.

At a glance

HabitatLakes, rivers, coastal bays, farmland
DietAquatic plants, grasses, waste grain
RangeBreeds Iceland/Scandinavia/Siberia; winters temperate Europe/Asia
Coloring poselanding on icy lake, wings flared

Hear this bird

Buttons open trusted public pages with playable recordings. We link out — we do not host or embed the audio on this companion site for these pages.

Mating / display: No separately labeled courtship recording was found on primary sources for this species — use the general calls page.

How to know it

Fun facts

Companion page for the Birds Coloring Calendar series by R. J. D. B. Fact summaries are original educational text. Call playback via outbound links only. Not affiliated with Cornell Lab, Audubon, or Xeno-canto.