Cygnus cygnus
Silhouette: Andrew Cho · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The whooper swan (/ˈhuːpə(ɹ) swɒn/ "hooper swan"; Cygnus cygnus), is a large northern hemisphere swan. It is the Eurasian counterpart of the North American trumpeter swan. Francis Willughby and John Ray's Ornithology of 1676 referred to this swan as "the Elk, Hooper, or wild Swan". It was one of the many bird species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in the 1758 10th edition of his Systema Naturae, where it was given the binomial name of Anas cygnus. The species name is from cygnus, the Latin for "swan", and the type species for the genus Cygnus. This swan is monotypic with no subspecies.
The old name 'elk', which is not related to the deer species of the same name, derives from Old Norse elft, and also survives in modern Icelandic name for the species álft; it is cognate with the Latin albus, 'white'. The whooper swan is similar in appearance to Bewick's swan. It is larger, however, at a length of 140–165 centimetres (55–65 inches) and a wingspan of 205–275 cm (81–108 in), similar in size to the mute swan. The weight is typically in the range of 7.4–14.0 kilograms (16+1⁄4–30+3⁄4 pounds), with an average of 9.8–11.4 kg (21+1⁄2–25+1⁄4 lb) for males... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vatnajokull National Park | 🇮🇸 Iceland | |
| 2 | Biebrza National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 3 | Białowieża National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 4 | Gauja National Park | 🇱🇻 Latvia | |
| 5 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 6 | Cairngorms National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 7 | Snowdonia National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Whooper Swan sighting in Copenhagen on a given day, based on 19 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 125th most-seen of the 154 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Whooper Swan in Copenhagen on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Whooper Swan sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
13th of 18
Of the 18 cities where we can rate Whooper Swan sightings, Copenhagen ranks 13th at under 5%. The best odds are in Helsinki (Finland, about 30%), Daegu (South Korea, about 10%) and Busan (South Korea, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Whooper Swan is recorded against all the birds logged in Copenhagen (19 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
