The North American Swans

Among birds swans are relatively long-lived species and are also among the most strongly monogamous having prolonged pair and family bonds that strongly influence their reproductive and general social behavior which in combination with their beauty and elegance contribute to the overall high degree of worldwide human interest in them. This volume of more than 59000 words describes the distributions ecology social behavior and breeding biologies of the four species of swans that breed or have historically bred in North America including the native trumpeter and tundra swans the introduced mute swan and the marginally occurring whooper swan. Also included are 5 distribution maps 15 drawings 27 photographs by the author and a reference section of nearly 1000 literature citations.