Swans are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with related geese in the other family Anserinae. Swans usually mate for life, swans have a type of divorce which sometimes occurs, mainly because of nesting failure. The number of eggs in each nest ranges from three to eight eggs. The word "swan" is taken from Old English word swan, just like the German Schwan and the Dutch zwaan, from the Indo-European root swen which meens to sound, to sing. Young swans are known as cygnets, from the Latin word for swan. An adult male is a cob which meens leader of a group. An adult female is a pen.
Swans are highly intelligent and remember who has been kind to them, or not. There behavior is they respond in kind and gentle ways. They do not usually attack people, and will only bite if they feel threatened. They are more aggressive during the nesting season because they need to protect their nest and eggs. Nesting season usually starts in March and lasts a few months until they can go off on there own. Mute swans have sharp vision and hearing. Although they don’t have a call they have a variety of sounds to get across there emotions. For example they do a gentle bleating noise. also a head to tail long snort sometimes along with them raising there heads and feathers and start to become fluffed, to tell that they are happy. If you want to tell if they are a male from a female you have to pay close attention to there feathers and colors. They look alot alike, but if you look close, you can tell one from the other. First of all males are larger than the females. Also the neck of a male is thicker than the neck of a female.
The Northern Hemisphere species of swan have pure white feathers, but the Southern Hemisphere species are mixed black and white. The Australian Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) is completely black except for the white feathers on its wings, and the South American Black-necked Swan has a black neck. The legs of swans are dark blackish grey. The bill color can often vary. The four main species have black bills with different amounts of yellow, and all the others are patterned red and black. The Mute Swan and Black-necked Swan have a lump at the base of the bill on the upper part of there head.
Mute swans weigh from 6.5 – 13 kg (14 – 30 pounds), are about 160 cm (5 feet) long and can have a wingspan up to 2.5 meters (8 feet). A swan has about 25,000 feathers. Swans in a protected environment might live as long as 30 years max. Swans eat aquatic vegetation and insects, even tiny fish and tadpoles. They are not in competition with ducks and smaller water animals for food. They actually help the smaller birds when parts of plants they’re eating float to the surface.
Evidence says that the genus Cygnus evolved in Europe or western Eurasia during the Miocene, spreading all over the Northern Hemisphere until the Pliocene. When the southern species branched off and its not known. The Mute Swan apparently is closest to the Southern Hemisphere Cygnus and its habits of carrying the neck curved (not straight) and the wings fluffed (not flush) as well as its bill color and knob show that its closest living relative is actually the Black Swan. Swans eat lots of grass in the waters and spend lots of there time in the water.
Swans are highly intelligent and remember who has been kind to them, or not. There behavior is they respond in kind and gentle ways. They do not usually attack people, and will only bite if they feel threatened. They are more aggressive during the nesting season because they need to protect their nest and eggs. Nesting season usually starts in March and lasts a few months until they can go off on there own. Mute swans have sharp vision and hearing. Although they don’t have a call they have a variety of sounds to get across there emotions. For example they do a gentle bleating noise. also a head to tail long snort sometimes along with them raising there heads and feathers and start to become fluffed, to tell that they are happy. If you want to tell if they are a male from a female you have to pay close attention to there feathers and colors. They look alot alike, but if you look close, you can tell one from the other. First of all males are larger than the females. Also the neck of a male is thicker than the neck of a female.
The Northern Hemisphere species of swan have pure white feathers, but the Southern Hemisphere species are mixed black and white. The Australian Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) is completely black except for the white feathers on its wings, and the South American Black-necked Swan has a black neck. The legs of swans are dark blackish grey. The bill color can often vary. The four main species have black bills with different amounts of yellow, and all the others are patterned red and black. The Mute Swan and Black-necked Swan have a lump at the base of the bill on the upper part of there head.
Mute swans weigh from 6.5 – 13 kg (14 – 30 pounds), are about 160 cm (5 feet) long and can have a wingspan up to 2.5 meters (8 feet). A swan has about 25,000 feathers. Swans in a protected environment might live as long as 30 years max. Swans eat aquatic vegetation and insects, even tiny fish and tadpoles. They are not in competition with ducks and smaller water animals for food. They actually help the smaller birds when parts of plants they’re eating float to the surface.
Evidence says that the genus Cygnus evolved in Europe or western Eurasia during the Miocene, spreading all over the Northern Hemisphere until the Pliocene. When the southern species branched off and its not known. The Mute Swan apparently is closest to the Southern Hemisphere Cygnus and its habits of carrying the neck curved (not straight) and the wings fluffed (not flush) as well as its bill color and knob show that its closest living relative is actually the Black Swan. Swans eat lots of grass in the waters and spend lots of there time in the water.
1 comment:
Look at the first few sentences and see how you could reorganize the information to make the paper flow better. Make sure sentences related to the same topic are grouped together! Great information about the physical description of the swan as well as how it helps other animals gather food. Re-read for grammar and spelling typos!
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