[Birdtalk] Marked Tundra Swan

[Ryan O'Donnell]

Craig and I both forgot to mention that one of the Tundra Swans we saw
in Cache Valley today had a plastic neck collar.  The collar was blue
with white lettering.  It was just at the limit of our vision through
the scopes - we were able to determine that the number was K--6, but we
couldn't read the middle two characters.  I did some research to try to
find out more about swan neck collaring protocol, and I found it
interesting that you can indirectly identify the species by the color of
the neck collar - Tundra Swans have gray, black, or blue collars and
Trumpeter Swans have green, red, or yellow collars (see
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbl/homepage/swan.htm).  Also, Trumpeter Swans
always have three characters whereas Tundra Swans can have three or
four.  If you get the chance to find this swan, neck band numbers can be
reported at http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbl/homepage/recwobnd.cfm.
 
Good birding,
Ryan
 
Ryan P. O'Donnell
Department of Biology and the Ecology Center
Utah State University
5305 Old Main Hill
Logan, UT 84322-5305
 
http://200birds.blogspot.com