looduskalender.ee

A large and powerful bird with white plumage, no smaller than the mute swan in measures; only the weight is slightly less, it stops at under ten kilos..

 

The passing migrants start coming in the beginning of October and leave with the snow. The rather hidden-away whooper swan nesters are around 50 pairs in Estonia, and the young, in brownish-grey plumage, can be seen. The number of passing migrants during the autumn migration is estimated to around ten thousand individuals and large flocks are encountered more and more often at Lake Peipus in addition to the well-known shallow sea bay areas in western Estonia.

 

Seeing a flock of swans from far away the whooper swans leave an impression of slenderness, with necks straight up; the feathers on the crown of older birds may sometimes be coloured reddish brown, the base of the beak broadly yellow with a black tip. The base of the beak of the young birds is pinkish, and the plumage has already been described.