trumpeter swan, photo by tobibritsch.

On the Michigan DNR’s page on the trumpeter swan, says that at 25-35 pounds when fully grown, the trumpeter swan is the world’s largest waterfowl with a wingspan of nearly 8′ and that:

Historically, trumpeter swans were most likely abundant throughout the Great Lakes region, even in the southern Michigan marshlands. On his travels along the Detroit River in 1701, Cadillac compared the abundance of swans to lilies among the rushes. However, with the settlement of America, the populations of trumpeters plummeted. Beginning in the late 1800s, European settlers cleared the land, draining and filling important marsh habitat, and market hunters took swans for their fine down and quills. By 1933, only 66 trumpeter swans remained in the continental United States, mainly in remote parts of the Rocky Mountains and Alaska. Nearly 100 years passed before trumpeter swans were seen again in the Michigan wilds.

In the 1980s Michigan began a swan reintroduction program as part of the North American Restoration Plan. While the program has been a success and dramatically increased the number of nesting pairs, there are some who question whether these birds did in fact historically nest in Michigan. Nuthatch at the excellent Michigan blog bootstrap analysis presents the case in with great links in swans, take 2. It’s something that merits consideration as swans are pretty rough on aquatic habitats!

For more on these birds, check out The Trumpeter Swan Society. Also, the UM Animal Diversity Web Cygnus buccinator (trumpeter swan) listing has some photos but unfortunately no sounds. Wikipedia’s Trumpeter Swan entry also includes creative commons photos of trumpeter swans for use and download.

The photographer has a cool set of waterbird photos (slideshow) and this photo is in the Birds of Michigan group on Flickr. It’s for sharing photos of birds found anywhere in the State of Michigan and they say that if you cannot identify the bird, post it to the group and likely someone there can!