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posted February 29th, 2012; last edited February 28th, 2012 –– David Sibley

Trumpeter Swans, yellow bill spots, and leucism

Trumpeter Swan with yellow patches on the bill, a well-known individual in Scarborough, Ontario. This photo taken in Jan 2012 by Jill Ramsay, used by permission.

In a previous post I’ve talked about Trumpeter Swans with yellow bill spots as a source of confusion with Tundra Swan. I speculated that the yellow spots might [...]

posted February 19th, 2006; last edited April 8th, 2010 –– David Sibley

Distinguishing Trumpeter and Tundra Swans

The separation of Trumpeter and Tundra Swans has been a perennial challenge. Both are obviously swans, and given decent looks they are easy to distinguish from Mute Swan, but criteria for separating Tundra Swan from Trumpeter Swan are subjective and often vague, requiring experience and/or direct comparison. Until recently there were relatively few places where [...]