Tundra Swan
The Tundra Swan is a large species of waterfowl that is found in northern parts of both the Old and New Worlds. It is migratory; Old World birds breeding across Siberia and winter in southeastern parts of Asia or northwestern Europe, while New World birds breed in parts of Alaska and extreme northern Canada, spending the winter along the Pacific and Altantic Coasts.
The two separate Tundra Swans are divided into two subspecies, Bewick's Swan in the Old World and Whistling Swan in the Americas. Some taxonomies consider them two different species.
As their name indicates, Tundra Swans breed nearby water in tundra habitat. They feed mainly on vegetation, both aquatic and terrestrial. They occasionally feed on invertebrates and small aquatic animals.
Details & Statistics
- Least Concern (LC)
- Near Threatened (NT)
- Vulnerable (VU)
- Endangered (EN)
- Critically Endangered (CR)
- Extinct in the Wild (EW)
- Extinct (EX)
Range
Conservation
The Tundra Swan is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and was last assessed in 2015 by BirdLife International. This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (extent of occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population trend is not known, but the population is not believed to be decreasing sufficiently rapidly to approach the thresholds under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is very large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
International Names
