WHISTLING SWAN 

 ( Olor columblanus ) 



[DA: Pibesvane, FR: Cygne siffleur, GE: Pfeifschwan, IT: Cigno rainore, PO: 

 Labedz czarnodzioby , SP: Cisne silbador, Cisne chiflador, Ansar careto grande] 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 



North America Whistling Swans breed coastally in Alaska and eastward 

 across northern Canada east to southwestern Baffin Island, islands in north- 

 ern Hudson Bay, and the northeast coast of Hudson Bay. In the west they breed 

 south as far as Kodiak Island off Alaska and in the east breed south as far as 

 Belcher Island in southeastern Hudson Bay (Delacour 1954, AOU 1957, Heyland et 

 al. 1970, Palmer 1976a). They winter chiefly along the Pacific coast from Brit- 

 ish Columbia, Washington, and Oregon, and occasionally in the Aleutian Islands, 

 Alaska, south to California, and they occasionally reach northern Baja Califor- 

 nia. Along the Atlantic seaboard (Map 1), they winter principally from Mary- 

 land (Chesapeake Bay) south to North Carolina (Currituck Sound), and occur 

 rarely north to the Maritimes, Maine, and Long Island, and south to Florida and 

 the Gulf coasts of Texas and Louisiana. In migration they occur on large bodies 

 of water throughout the interior states, including the Great Basin (AOU 1957, 

 Palmer 1976a). 



World Distribution Whistling Swans breed entirely within Arctic tundra 

 habitats of North America, although Kistchinski et al. (1975) reported breeding 

 in Siberia. They have been reported from Anadyrland in western U.S.S.R. (Por- 

 tenko 1939 in Palmer 1976a) and questionably from Scotland (AOU 1957). Winter 

 stragglers have been reported from Mexico, Bermuda, Cuba, and Puerto Rico (AOU 

 1957, Palmer 1976a), Japan, and possibly England (Evans and Sladen 1980). 



DISTRIBUTION IN THE COASTAL SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 



In winter, Whistling Swans are very common on the northern edge of our 

 area, and are uncommon to casual throughout the rest of the southeast (Map 1). 

 Numbers and the wintering range may be increasing. 



Taxonomic note: The Whistling Swan is the North American member of a Holarctic, 

 tundra-breeding superspecies of swans which includes the Palearctic Bewick's 

 Swan, Olor bewickii . Palmer (1976a) and Cramp et al. (1977) took the view that 

 these forms are conspecific. They also followed Delacour (1954) and Johnsgard 

 (1975, 1978) in merging the genus Olor into Cygnus . We follow the AOU (1957) in 

 retaining Olor and treating the Whistling Swan as a distinct North American spe- 

 cies, although merging the two forms as a single species, the Tundra Swan, will 

 probably be more generally accepted in the future. We have included a number 

 of recent titles regarding the Palearctic swans in the bibliography since the 

 data obtained on these birds may well be relevant to the North American swan. 



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