I photographed a rare trumpeter swan, and didn't realize it for a month! LIFE BIRD!!!
Trumpeter swans (Cygnus buccinator) are incredibly rare in California, or rather, they look so similar to the numerous tundra swans that they're hardly ever identified by birders. I took this picture because someone I was meeting was late, and haha, I wanted to see if any of the swans in the rice paddy between Live Oak and Pennington were trumpeters. I was frankly shocked when I looked closely at the pictures a month later, and found that one actually was!
Because yes, the adult on the left is. Look at the large straight beak, the pink mouth line, and especially, the way the black beak extends into the black of the eye in a broad stripe.
Jan 29, 2018, outside Pennington, California.
I photographed a rare trumpeter swan, and didn't realize it for a month! LIFE BIRD!!!
Trumpeter swans (Cygnus buccinator) are incredibly rare in California, or rather, they look so similar to the numerous tundra swans that they're hardly ever identified by birders. I took this picture because someone I was meeting was late, and haha, I wanted to see if any of the swans in the rice paddy between Live Oak and Pennington were trumpeters. I was frankly shocked when I looked closely at the pictures a month later, and found that one actually was!
Because yes, the adult on the left is. Look at the large straight beak, the pink mouth line, and especially, the way the black beak extends into the black of the eye in a broad stripe.
Jan 29, 2018, outside Pennington, California.