Whooper Swan

Project summary

574
Birds colour-marked

400
Sightings received

2023
Year project started

Colour-marks used

White leg ring, 3 black characters (number, number, letter) on one leg with a metal on other leg
(**Note:** not always BTO metal as some birds ringed in Iceland).

White leg ring, 3 black characters (all letters) on one leg with a metal on other leg
(**Note:** not always BTO metal as some birds ringed in Iceland).

report a sighting

other colour-marks

Background

The Iceland Whooper Swan has been intensively studied through a long-term life history study undertaken by the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust in collaboration with Sverrir Thorstensen, Olafur Einnarsson, the Irish Whooper Swan Study Group and the Icelandic Institute for Natural History (IINH). The study commenced in 1989 which saw several thousand birds captured and ringed both on the breeding/summering grounds in Iceland and also at wintering sites in Britain and Ireland. In 2021 this long-term life history study came to an end.

To continue collecting data to contribute to the demographic monitoring of this population, the Waterbird Colour-marking Group have teamed up with Sverrir Thorstensen to continue catching and colour-marking birds in Iceland. The group’s activities sees targeted catch effort taking place at non-breeding moulting flocks in northern Iceland along with catching family groups consisting of breeding pairs and their cygnets.

Want to know more?

newsletter 2023