Trumpeter Swan x Whooper Swan (hybrid)

Cygnus buccinator x CYGNUS cygnus

Status: Accidental in winter

Record: A single bird was observed and photographed at Gavin’s Point Dam, Cedar Co 7 Dec-1 Jan 2026 (Gregory Pavelka, eBird.org).

Comments: The photographs show a yellow ill-defined but fairly extensive yellow patch on the bill of an otherwise Trumpeter-like adult swan (eBird Checklist – 17 Dec 2024 – Lake Yankton (Cedar Co. NE). A photograph taken 17 Dec (eBird.org) shows this swan had black legs, ruling out the possibility of a leucistic Trumpeter Swan, which has orange legs and sometimes yellow lores (McEneaney 2005).

“Yellow-lored” non-leucistic Trumpeter Swans are very rare (Mitchell and Eichholz 2020); McEneaney (2005) noted only one at Yellowstone NP during several decades of observations there; it was an individual that nested for several years in the 1980s.

Literature Cited

McEneaney, T. 2005. Rare color variants of the Trumpeter Swan. Birding 37: 148-154.

Mitchell, C.D., and M.W. Eichholz. 2020. Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (P. G. Rodewald, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.truswa.01.

Recommended Citation

Silcock, W.R., and J.G. Jorgensen. 2026. Trumpeter Swan x Whooper Swan (hybrid) (Cygnus buccinator x Cygnus cygnus). In Birds of Nebraska — Online. www.BirdsofNebraska.org

Updated 13 Mar 2026